MISSIONS    AND 
MODERN    HISTORY 


A  Study  of  the  Missionary 
Aspects  of  Some  Great  Move- 
ments of  the  Nineteenth  Century 


By 
ROBERT   E. 


SPEER 


Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


In  two  volumes 


VOL.  II 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,    1904,     by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York :  1 58  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago  :  63  Washington  Street 
Toronto  :  27  Richmond  Street,  W 
London  :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :    30  St.    Mary   Street 


Contents 


Second  Volume 

VII.  The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection     . 

VIII.  The  Transformation  of  Japan 

IX.  The  Armenian  Massacres 

X.  The  Going  of  the  Spaniard 

XI.  The  Boxer  Uprising 

XII.  The  Coming  of  the  Slav  . 

XIII.  Missions  and  the  World  Movement 
Index  ...... 


35i 

393 

439 

487 

537 
595 
657 

693 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection 


VII 
THE  TONG  HAK  INSURRECTION 

AT  the  same  time  that  the  Tai-ping  Rebellion  was  ravaging 
the  Yang-tse  Valley,  proclaiming  a  monotheistic  religion 
free  of  all  idolatry,  and  protesting  against  the  corruption 
of  the  Government,  there  arose  in  Korea  a  movement  of  very  similar 
character,  but  so  totally  independent  of  it  that  it  may  be  doubted  if 
the  Tong  Haks  had  ever  heard  of  the  Tai-pings.  Yet  like  them, 
they  proposed  a  religious  reformation,  and  the  influence  which 
dominated  the  new  conception  was  at  the  beginning  at  least,  the 
influence  of  the  Christian  movement  upon  Asia  as  represented  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  mission  in  Korea.  As  with  the  Tai-pings,  the 
movement  began  as  a  purely  religious  reform,  and  only  later  because 
of  the  oppression  of  corrupt  officials,  took  a  political  direction.  Its 
founder,  unlike  Hung  Siu-tsuen,  had  no  imperial  dreams.  For  forty- 
five  years  it  pursued  its  course,  and  then,  in  1894,  broke  out  into  an 
insurrection  whose  consequences  we  shall  trace,  finding  in  them  some 
of  the  most  significant  events  of  the  last  century. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  a  sense  of  deep  pity  for  a  movement 
like  this  of  the  Tong  Haks.  It  is  one  of  many  movements  of  men 
whose  minds  have  expanded  to  take  in  a  new  thought,  who  have 
struggled  hopelessly  with  the  social  conditions  which  held  them,  and 
have  accepted  persecution  and  death  and  failed,  without  even  the 
consolation  of  knowing  that  the  world  has  watched  them  and  will 
remember  them.  There  must  have  been  scores  of  such  movements 
in  the  unrecorded  history  of  Asia  during  the  centuries  that  have 
passed. 

Aside  from  the  interesting  features  of  the  Tong  Hak  movement, 
itself  and  the  great  consequences  that  flowed  from  it,  we  should  be 
concerned  to  know  about  it  because  we  have  been  as  a  people  related- 
in  a  peculiar  way  to  Korea.     It  is  the  one  Asiatic  nation,  prior  to 

359 


360  Missions  and  Modern  History 

our  participation  in  the  relief  of  Peking,  with  which  we  have  waged 
war,  and  our  country  was  the  first  of  Western  nations  to  secure  a 
treaty  with  her.  For  generations  we  have  felt  a  special  interest  in 
the  land.  In  1845  it  was  voted  by  Congress  that  "immediate 
measures  be  taken  for  effecting  commercial  arrangements  with  the 
empire  of  Japan  and  the  Kingdom  of  Korea."  Nothing  was  done, 
however,  to  carry  this  resolution  into  effect  in  the  case  of  Korea, 
Commander  Perry  scarcely  mentioning  Korea  in  his  narrative  of  his 
great  treaty  expedition.  Indeed  Korea  was  in  no  mood  for  foreign 
intercourse.  The  same  year  that  Congress  voted  to  effect  commercial 
arrangements  with  Korea,  a  Korean  named  Kim  was  put  to  death  in 
Seoul  "  for  communicating  with  the  Western  barbarians." 

Our  first  contact  with  the  people  was  in  1866,  when  an  American 
schooner,   Surprise,  was  wrecked   on  the   coast.     The  crew  were 
treated  hospitably,  supplied  with  clothing  and  food,  and  sent  through 
Manchuria  to  New-chwang.     In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  occurred 
the  affair   of  the    General  Sherman,   a  merchant  schooner  which 
sailed  up  the  Ta-tong  River  ostensibly  for  trade,  but  under  circum- 
stances which  aroused  suspicion.     Its  crew  soon  got  into  difficulties 
with  the  people  and  were  killed,  while  the  ship  was  totally  destroyed. 
The  following  year  an  American  organized  a  piratical  expedition  to 
pilfer  the  royal  tombs  of  Korea,  but  it  returned,  happily  unsuccess- 
ful, to  Shanghai.     In  187 1,  an  armed  expedition  was  sent  to  attempt 
to  negotiate  a  treaty.     The  matter  was  handled  without  tact,  and  a 
needless  conflict  was  precipitated,  which  resulted  in  the  loss  of  three 
Americans  and  about  four  hundred  Koreans,  and  the  useless  capture 
of  the  ports  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  Han.     The  only  consequence 
of  the  war  was  to  confirm  the  hostile  feeling  of  the  Koreans,  and  to 
give  them  increased  contempt  for  the  barbarians  who  came  on  futile 
expeditions  of  piracy  or  robbery,  or  on  expeditions  to  avenge  the 
failure  of  the  pirates  and  robbers  which  met  with  the  same  fate.     In 
1882,  Japan  having  six  years  before  by  the  pursuit  of  Perry's  wise 
tactics  made  treaties  with  Korea,  the  Western  nations,  by  Japan's 
influence,  succeeded  at  last  in  breaking  through  the  walls  of  isolation, 
and  opening  Korea  to  the  world.1     Our  past  relations  with  Korea 
accordingly,  ended  well,  but  they  included  some  disreputable  pro- 
ceedings and  they  have  placed  us  under  a  debt  of  sympathy  and  in- 
>  Griffis,  Korea,  The  Hertnit  Nation,  Chs.  XLIV-XLVI. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  361 

terest  to  Korea  which  forbids  our  passing  by  an  episode  in  history 
like  the  Tong  Hak  uprising. 

But  in  any  event  a  movement  like  this  is  the  most  fascinating  and 
significant  of  all  subjects  of  study.  It  shows  us  new  ideas  working 
into  minds  hampered  by  the  traditions  of  centuries.  It  shows  us  the 
curious  compromises  which  these  ideas  make  with  older  notions.  It 
testifies  to  the  power  of  truth  even  though  partial  and  perverted  to 
compel  men  to  endure  and  to  suffer.  It  indicates  the  practical  nature 
of  religious  ideas.  They  are  bound  to  affect  life  and  custom  and 
institution.  And  it  shows  us  also  that  while  a  movement  like  this 
may  die,  failing  utterly  both  in  its  primary  and  in  its  derivative  pur- 
pose, the  results  at  which  it  aimed,  may  be  secured  through  its  ruin 
in  a  way  of  which  it  never  dreamed. 

The  Tong  Hak  movement  originated  in  1859  at  Kyeng  Chu,  a 
walled  town  forty-five  miles  north  of  Fusan,  in  the  province  of  Kyeng 
Sang.  Its  founder  Choi  Chei  Ou  was  a  Confucian  scholar,  and  he 
began  his  work  under  the  pressure  of  an  experience  somewhat  like 
Hung  Siu-tsuen's.  He  had  watched  with  deep  interest  the  progress 
made  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Korea,  and  he  began  to 
think  deeply  as  to  whether  it  was  the  true  religion.  It  was  proscribed 
by  the  Government,  and  even  then  its  adherents  were  being  pursued 
and  slain,  but  resolutely  refused  to  deny  their  faith.  The  whole 
affair  profoundly  impressed  Choi  Chei  Ou.  "  Since  the  missionaries 
have  come  so  far,"  he  argued,  "and  spent  so  much  in  the  propaga- 
tion of  their  religion,  it  must  be  true ;  and  yet,  if  it  is  true,  why  are 
its  followers  now  being  killed  by  the  Government  as  criminals?" 
As  he  brooded  over  this  question  from  day  to  day,  he  fell  sick. 
Though  he  used  much  medicine,  he  became  no  better,  and  was 
finally  at  the  point  of  death.  One  morning  just  as  the  sun  rose  over 
the  hills,  he  fell  into  a  kind  of  trance,  and  there  appeared  unto  him 
some  supernatural  being,  who  called  him  by  name.  "  Choi  Chei 
Ou-a  !  "  "  Yea,"  answered  Choi.  "  Knowest  thou  not  who  speak  est 
unto  thee?"  "Nay,"  replied  Choi.  "Who  art  thou?"  "I  am 
God,"  was  the  answer.  "  Worship  Me  and  thou  shalt  have  power 
over  the  people."  Choi  then  proceeded  to  ask  him  concerning  the 
question  nearest  to  his  heart.  "Is  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  the 
true  religion  ?  "  "  No, ' '  was  the  reply,  ' '  the  word  and  the  time  are  the 
same,  but  the  thought  and  spirit  are  different  from  the  true."     With 


362  Missions  and  Modern  History 

this  God  departed.  Choi,  seizing  a  pen  close  by,  grasped  it,  and 
there  came  out  in  circular  form  upon  the  paper  these  words  :  "  Since 
from  aforetime  we  have  worshipped  Thee,  Lord  of  heaven,  accord- 
ing to  Thy  goodness  do  Thou  always  bestow  upon  us  to  know  and 
not  forget  all  things  (concerning  Thee)  and  since  Thine  unspeakable 
thoughts  have  come  to  us,  do  Thou  abundantly  for  us  according  to 
our  desire."  This  scrawl  Choi  picked  up,  burned  it,  and  pouring 
the  ashes  into  a  bowl  of  water,  drank  it.  Immediately  he  arose  and 
his  sickness  was  entirely  gone. 

Choi  felt  called  to  found  a  new  religion.  He  was  not  satisfied 
with  Confucianism  or  Buddhism  or  Taoism,  the  systems  he  already 
knew,  and  his  divine  revelation  as  he  believed  it  to  be,  dismissed  the 
claims  of  Christianity  as  taught  by  the  Roman  Catholic  priests. 
Accordingly,  he  set  about  constructing  a  new  system.  Tong  Hak, 
he  called  it,  or  Eastern  Learning,  in  distinction  from  Romanism, 
which  was  called  Su  Hak,  or  Western  Learning.  The  name  was  ap- 
propriate, also,  because  his  new  faith  was  a  composite  of  what  was 
best  in  the  Eastern  systems  under  which  he  had  grown  up.  From 
Confucianism  he  took  the  Five  Relations,  father  and  son,  sovereign 
and  subject,  husband  and  wife,  friend  and  friend,  and  elder  brother 
and  younger  brother  :  from  Buddhism  the  law  for  heart  cleansing  and 
from  Taoism  the  law  of  cleansing  the  body  from  moral  as  well  as  from 
natural  filth.  One  of  the  names  of  the  Bible  of  the  new  religion 
which  Choi  made  and  called  "Great  Sacred  Writings,"  is  made  by 
combining  the  names  of  the  three  religions,  Yu  Poul  San  Sam  To. 
Beside  the  Bible  he  composed  a  prayer  for  the  Tong  Haks,  in  which 
the  influence  of  Romanism  was  seen  in  his  choice  of  a  term  for 
God. 

It  was  from  Romanism  also,  doubtless,  that  Choi  got  his  strong 
monotheistic  convictions.  He  and  his  followers  rejected  the  Bud- 
dhist belief  of  the  transmigration  of  souls  and  they  did  not  use 
images  in  worship.  "Their  rites,"  wrote  Mr.  Junkin,  to  whose 
article  on  the  Tong  Haks  I  am  indebted  for  the  preceding  state- 
ments,1 "are   free   and   simple.     When   members  are  to  be  initi- 

1  The  Episode  of  the  Tong  Haks  is  an  almost  unworked  field  in  history. 
Three  or  four  articles  in  the  Korean  Repository  are  all  that  I  have  been  able  to 
find:  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  Art.  "The  Tong  Hak,"  by  the  Rev.  Wm.  M.  Junkin;  Vol. 
II,  No.  6,  Art.  "Seven  Months  Among  the  Tong  Haks;"  Vol.  II,  No.  I, 
Editorial,  "  A  Retrospect ;  "  Vol.  V,  No.  6,  "  Confession  of  a  Tong  Hak  Chief." 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  363 

ated,  a  master  of  ceremonies  calls  the  candidates  before  him.  Two 
candles  are  lighted.  Fish,  bread  and  sweet  wine  are  placed  before 
them.  Then  they  repeat  twenty-four  times  in  concert  the  Tong  Hak 
prayer,  'Si  Chun  Chu.'  Bowing  before  the  candles  completes  the 
ceremony,  when  they  rise  and  partake  of  the  banquet — the  expenses 
of  which  are  paid  by  the  newly  initiated.  They  claim  that  they  do 
not  sacrifice,  making  a  distinction  between  the  words  Chei  Sa  and 
Tchi  Sung.  They  worship  as  follows :  Cement,  red  clay,  and  one 
smooth  stone  are  taken  and  an  altar  is  made.  Before  this  a  bowl  of 
pure  water  is  placed,  and  at  night  the  worshipper  bows  before  this 
with  forehead  on  the  floor,  praying  the  <  Si  Chun  Chu.'  When  his 
prayers  are  over,  he  drinks  the  water,  calling  it  the  cup  of  divine 
favour."  1 

From  its  birthplace  in  Kyeng  Sang  the  Tong  Hak  religion  spread 
westward  and  north  into  the  provinces  of  Chulla  and  Chung-chung, 
and  drew  adherents  steadily.  It  is  evident  that  it  bore  strong  resem- 
blance to  Romanism,  and  when  in  1865  the  persecution  against  the 
Catholics  became  deadly,  the  Tong  Haks  suffered  also.  Ever  since 
the  heroic  missionaries  of  the  Church  of  Rome  had  come  to  Korea 
in  1845,  they  had  been  obliged  to  carry  on  their  work  secretly,  with 
now  and  then  a  temporary  respite  when  the  authorities  at  Seoul  had 
momentary  relaxations  of  bitterness  or  passing  frights  at  the  possi- 
bilities of  foreign  invasion.  But  in  the  sixties  the  last  and  greatest 
persecution  broke  in  all  its  fury.  In  1864  the  Queen  Cho,  a  bitter 
enemy  of  Christianity  assumed  the  regency,  adopting  a  lad  of  twelve, 
the  present  Emperor,  and  entrusting  to  his  father  "  the  rudder  of 
state,"  as  Father  Wallays  of  Penang,  says  in  his  account  of  the 
Catholic  mission  in  Korea.  Shortly  after,  the  Russians  pressed  the 
confines  of  their  empire  to  the  border  of  the  Korean  province  of  Ham 
Kyung  and  appeared  in  Gensan  harbour,  and  applied  to  the  Korean 
Government  for  powers  to  trade  and  settle.  "  The  Korean  Govern- 
ment was  in  the  greatest  straits.  On  this,"  says  Father  Wallays, 
"certain  Christian  nobles,  Thomas  Kim  Kei-ho,  Thomas  Hong 
Pong-chu,  house  stewards  to  the  Bishop  of  Copsa,  and  Anthony  Ngi, 
thinking  that  by  so  doing  they  would  be  advancing  the  interests  of 
religion  and  of  the  country,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  King's  father,  point- 
ing out  to  him  that  the  only  way  of  saving  the  kingdom  from  a  Rus- 
l  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  6,  pp.  57,  58. 


364  Missions  and  Modern  History 

sian  invasion,  was  by  making  a  treaty  with  the  French  and  English, 
and  that  this  could  be  done  without  difficulty  by  the  aid  of  the 
European  bishops  residing  in  the  kingdom.  The  prince  read  this 
letter  over  and  over,  but  made  no  reply,  seeing  which,  those  who  had 
written  it  were  very  much  alarmed. 

"The  King's  mother  having  directed  that  a  fresh  letter  should  be 
written,  this  was  done  by  John  Nam,  a  noble  literatus  living  at  Court. 
The  Bishop  of  Copsa,  hearing  what  had  been  done  and  thinking 
that  he  would  be  sent  for  by  the  prince,  had  returned  to  Seoul,  and 
was  looking  forward  full  of  hope  to  the  issue  of  the  business.  But 
in  the  meanwhile  the  Russians  had  gone,  the  panic  had  subsided, 
and  the  envoys  returning  from  Peking  announced  that  Europeans 
were  being  butchered  all  over  the  Empire ;  so  that  as  the  royal  min- 
isters went  on  persecuting  the  Christians  with  the  greatest  hatred, 
the  anti-religious  view  prevailed,  and  it  was  decided  that  all  the  mis- 
sionaries should  be  sacrificed  and  the  former  laws  against  Christians 
put  into  execution  once  more."  1  It  is  easy  to  blame  the  Catholic 
missionaries  for  intervening  in  political  affairs,  since  their  interven- 
tion failed ;  but  if  it  had  succeeded  and  had  indeed  opened  Korea 
by  treaty  to  the  West  eighteen  years  before,  as  it  turned  out,  the 
first  Western  treaties  were  signed,  it  would  have  been  a  great  and 
worthy  triumph.  At  any  rate,  as  it  was,  they  were  preaching  a  pro- 
scribed religion.  Scarcely  any  venture  would  make  matters  worse. 
A  prudent  venture  might  make  them  infinitely  better,  and  prove  a 
great  blessing  to  the  whole  land.  In  any  event  they  were  ready  to 
lay  down  their  lives  in  their  cause,  and  for  it,  and  the  issue  of  the 
matter  was  for  them  the  glorious  martyrdom  they  coveted.  The 
Bishop  of  Copsa,  says  Father  Wallays,  was  examined  before  the 
King's  father,  and  after  answering  various  queries,  was  invited  to 
abjure  his  faith.  "I  came,"  said  he,  "to  preach  the  religion  by 
which  souls  are  saved,  and  you  desire  me  to  abjure  it.  That  I  will 
certainly  not  do."  "The  executioners  were  then  ordered  to  beat 
the  venerable  old  man  in  the  most  cruel  fashion,  and  to  flay  him  with 
scourges  ;  the  bones  of  his  legs  were  stripped  of  flesh,  and  all  his 
body  was  torn  to  shreds."  2  With  him  died  the  Bishop  of  Acona  and 
seven  priests.     The  three  who  escaped  were  driven  out,  and  the  fury 

'Wallays,  The  Missions  Etrangeres,  p.  130. 
8  Ibid.,  p.  131. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  365 

of  the  persecutors  nearly  wiped  out  of  existence  the  Korean  Church. 
"Nameless  torture  and  indescribable  modes  of  killing  filled  the  land 
with  a  terror  which  has  outlived  a  generation.  The  custom  of  put- 
ting suspects  in  bags  to  bring  them  to  the  capital  gave  rise  to  the 
expression,  'How  many  bags,'  as  an  equivalent  for  'How  many 
men  ? '  .  .  .  The  land  was  drenched  with  the  blood  of  the  in- 
nocent. Few  of  the  thousands  apostatized.  Frail  women  dragged 
from  the  seclusion  of  quiet  homes  to  stand  before  savage  tribunals, 
strong  men  and  even  tender  children  stoutly  refused  to  curse  the 
name  of  Jesus  or  spit  on  or  trample  under  foot  the  wooden  crosses 
offered  them,"  but  died  with  steadfast  faith.1  The  history  of  the 
Catholic  missions  in  Korea  shows  the  presence  in  Korean  character 
of  the  robust  qualities,  as  it  illustrates  also  that  wide-spread  discon- 
tent among  the  Koreans,  both  with  their  old  religion  and  with  their 
general  conditions,  to  which  the  Tong  Haks  made  their  appeal. 

It  was  in  the  earlier  stages  of  this  great  persecution  that  Choi  Chei 
Ou  was  arrested  on  the  unjust  suspicion  of  being  a  Roman  Catholic. 
He  was  accused  of  this  crime,  condemned  and  beheaded  at  Taiku, 
the  capital  of  Kyeng  Sang  province.     How  clearly  the  Government 
distinguished,  if  it  distinguished  at  all  at  the  time,  between  the  Tong 
Haks  and  the  Catholics  does  not  appear,  but  the  condemnation  of 
Choi  put  the  religion  under  the  ban.     For  twenty-seven  years  we 
know  little  of  it.     Evidently  it  held  the  devotion  of  its  followers,  and 
kept  alive  its  traditions,  and  in  1893  it  burst  out  again,  but  now  under 
political  forms  that  displayed  features  both  of  the  Tai-ping  and  the 
Boxer  Movements.     Like  both  of  these  it  was  very  full  of  religious 
superstitions,  even  magical  elements,  and  it  was  opposed  to  the  gen- 
eral official  corruption  that  prevailed ;  but  it  professed  loyalty  to  the 
throne  and  the  dynasty  that  occupied  it.     In  its  attitude  towards 
foreigners  it  was  conservative  and  reactionary. 

The  reappearance  of  the  Tong  Haks  was  in  the  spring  of  1893. 
At  that  time  fifty  of  them  came  "  to  Seoul  and  spread  a  complaint 
before  the  Palace  gate,  on  a  table,  over  which  was  thrown  a  red 
cloth.  They  asked  that  their  leader,  the  martyred  Choi  Chei  Ou, 
be  declared  innocent,  that  he  be  given  a  certain  rank,  and  that  they 
be  allowed  to  erect  a  monument  in  his  memory ;  further,  that  the 
ban  be  taken  off  their  religion,  and  that  they  be  allowed  equal  privi- 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  7,  p.  244 ;  Vol.  V,  No.  3,  pp.  81-91. 


o66  Missions  and  Modern  History 

leges  with  the  Roman  Catholics.  If  this  was  not  granted  they  would 
drive  all  foreigners  from  the  country.  The  King  replied  that  he  would 
give  the  matter  serious  consideration,  and  requested  that  they  would 
cease  to  obstruct  the  thoroughfare  in  front  of  His  Majesty's  gate. 
This  was  followed  by  the  arrest  of  a  few  Tong  Haks  in  the  district 
from  which  the  fifty  came.  Their  petition  was  not  granted."1 
Doubtless  the  King  thought  it  was  a  trifling  thing,  and  the  West 
knew  nothing  of  the  fifty  countrymen  who  stood  at  the  King's  gate 
with  their  petition  and  their  red  covered  table,  demanding  post- 
humous honours  for  the  martyred  Choi.  But  the  ignored  movement 
of  which  these  fifty  men  were  the  expression,  has  changed  the  history 
of  Asia,  made  one  nation,  and  unmade  another,  and  radically  in- 
fluenced the  development  of  all  the  great  powers  of  the  world. 

Rebuffed  and  disappointed  the  Tong  Haks  returned  to  their  homes, 
held  their  peace  until  the  following  spring,  and  then  the  organization 
rose  in  revolt.  Their  petition  in  the  spring  of  1893  had  concerned 
itself  with  their  religion,  and  might  have  been  granted  at  no  cost. 
Their  revolt  was  a  political  rebellion  against  the  wide-spread  cor- 
ruption and  oppression  of  the  Government,  deriving  its  tone  and  in- 
spiration, however,  from  their  peculiar  religious  doctrine. 

The  condition  of  Korea  amply  justified  revolt.  Courts,  magis- 
trates, taxation  were  corrupt  beyond  the  possibility  of  exaggeration. 
"  In  Seoul,"  said  the  editor  of  the  Korean  Repository,  "there  were 
officers  appointed  to  exercise  the  functions  of  judges,  but  no  lines 
were  drawn,  or  at  least  observed  between  the  judiciary  and  the  police, 
and  even  the  jailers,  the  runners  of  the  courts  and  other  hangers-on, 
the  whole  comprising  about  as  disreputable  and  rapacious  a  set  of 
scoundrels  as  ever  infested  and  cursed  a  community,  inflicted  pun- 
ishment upon  and  extorted  money  from  any  unfortunate  who  could 
by  any  device  or  accusation  be  got  into  their  clutches.  Unless  the 
prisoner  had  influential  friends,  to  be  imprisoned  was  to  be  robbed. 
It  is  to  be  presumed  that  some  thieves,  especially  if  they  had  not 
stolen  enough  to  divide,  were  in  the  jails,  but  that  a  large  number  of 
the  crowd  of  jailers,  reserves  (or  policemen)  and  hangers-on  we  have 
mentioned,  belonged  to  that  fraternity  and  should  have  been  in  in- 
stead of  out  of  and  around  the  jail,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The 
courts  were  in  no  respect  independent  of  outside  influence.  If  by 
>  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  pp.  59f. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  367 

any  lucky  mischance  a  judge  had  any  honesty  or  conscience,  and 
desired  to  decide  rightly,  he  was  liable  at  any  time  to  be  ordered  by 
some  higher  and  more  influential  official  to  do  otherwise  and  dared 
not  disobey.  It  is  notorious  that  certain  men,  very  high  and  influen- 
tial in  official  circles,  made  it  a  business  to  interfere  in  both  civil  and 
criminal  cases  for  a  consideration,  and  shamefully  sold  decisions,  that 
is,  if  given  money  or  an  interest  in  the  case,  and  ordered  the  judges  to 
render  the  decisions  they  desired.  Thus  justice  was  sold  brazenly 
almost  as  openly  as  the  brass  bowls  in  the  bazaars. 

"  Criminals  could  purchase  protection,  innocent  men  were  con- 
demned and  killed,  neither  life  nor  property  had  any  security. 

"  But  even  this  failed  to  satisfy  the  rapacity  of  the  class  of  officials 
we  have  mentioned.  They  established  private  robbing  offices  at  their 
residences.  If  any  common  man,  who  had  not  secured  protection 
from  some  Yang  ban  (patrician,)  had  by  some  lucky  chance  or  by 
industry  or  skill  in  his  business  or  trade,  saved  some  money  or  accu- 
mulated a  little  property,  some  false  claim  would  be  trumped  up 
against  him,  and  he  would  be  seized  and  taken  by  the  servants  of  the 
officials  to  the  official's  residence,  and  there  held  and  beaten  and  tor- 
tured until  the  poor  fellow  gave  up  his  hard  earned  savings. 

"  In  the  country  the  situation  was  fully  as  bad,  if  not  worse.  Jus- 
tice was  nominally  administered  by  the  governor  and  magistrates, 
but  actually  dispensed  with  even  a  more  sparing  hand  than  at  Seoul. 
There  governors  and  magistrates  had  as  a  rule  paid  for  their  appoint- 
ments, sums  more  or  less  large,  to  the  officials  in  Seoul,  under  whose  in- 
fluence they  were  appointed.  And  as  their  terms  of  office  were  most 
uncertain,  were  compelled  to  recoup  themselves  on  the  first  and  every 
opportunity.  The  people  were  robbed  and  squeezed  in  the  name  of 
the  law  mercilessly  and  unblushingly. 

"  To  this  vile  and  pernicious  prostitution  of  justice  and  law,"  adds 
the  Repository,  "we  may  trace  most  of  the  political  troubles  of 
Korea."  » 

How  rotten  things  were  and  how  selfish  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  even  in  1896,  when  some  measure  of  reform  had  been  introduced 
as  a  consequence  of  all  the  events  that  followed  the  agitation  of  the  Tong 
Haks,  the  Government  budget  of  "$6,316,831  (silver)  provided  for 
only  $149,090  (silver)  to  be  spent  for  education,  public  works  and 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  2,  pp.  45of. 


368  Missions  and  Modern  History 

support  of  prisoners.     The  balance  $6,167,741,  was  for  the  salaries 
and  other  expenses  of  the  Government  officials."     But,  beyond  this, 
Dr.  Jaisohn  contended  that  the  people  paid  double  this  amount  in 
taxes,  but  one-half  of  it  was  eaten  up  at  once  as  private  gain  by  vo- 
racious officials.1     "Official  rapacity  has  been  known  to  extort  as 
many  as  seven  bags  of  rice  out  of  every  ten."  2     The  Yang  ban  class 
was  constantly  increasing.     No  man  who  went  up  into  it  ever  came 
down,  and  it  was  contrary  to  his  sense  of  propriety  to  do  any  work.    In 
consequence  an  enormous  host  of  unnecessary  officials  had  to  live  upon 
the  people.3    When  the  people  showed  reluctance  to  be  squeezed,  offi- 
cials resorted  to  the  most  atrocious  cruelties.    At  the  time  of  the  Tong 
Hak  uprising  practices  were  common  which  later  became  uncommon 
enough  to  call  for  public  comment.     In  the  Seoul  Independent  for  Au- 
gust 7,  1897,  appears  a  letter  about  the  magistrate  of  Shi-heung,  de- 
scribing his  method  of  extorting  money  from  thrifty  farmers,  "  which 
has,"  the  writers  say,  "  a  telling  effect  on  every  victim  who  happens  to 
fall  into  his  hellish  hands.     First  he  beats  a  man  with  whips  until  the 
legs  become  raw,  then  he  takes  a  stout  rough  stick  and  rubs  the  raw 
shin  vigorously  with  it  until  flesh  is  torn  off.    He  repeats  the  punishment 
every  two  or  three  days  in  order  to  keep  the  part  from  healing.     No 
one  can  stand  the  torture  more  than  twice,  and  is  then  willing  to  pay 
everything  he  possesses  to  get  out  and  be  released  from  the  infernal 
punishment."     This   magistrate   had  earned  the   nickname  of  the 
"  Squeezing  Butcher. "     And  this  is  no  exaggeration.    I  saw  in  the  jail 
yard  at  Pyeng  Yang  in  1897  a  group  of  prisoners  who  had  been  treated 
in  just  some  such  way.     The  flesh  was  festering,  raw  and  diseased  on 
their  thighs  and  ankles,  where  they  had  been  repeatedly  beaten  with 
sticks.     The  prison  gate  stood  wide  open.     I  asked  a  keeper  why  the 
prisoners  did  not  escape.     He  smiled  and  said  they  did  not  wish  to. 
A  second  look  at  the  helpless  limbs  and  the  pain  twisted  faces  showed 
that  they  had  no  life  to  do  more  than  to  huddle  in  the  sun  and  en- 
dure their  pain. 

Even  the  most  long-suffering  people  must  turn  at  last,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1894,  the  limit  was  reached.  The  Tong  Haks  were  dis- 
contented.    On  account  of  their  religion  they  were  under  suspicion. 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  Ill,  N0/4,  p.  167. 
*  Korean  Repository ;  Vol.  II,  No.  I,  p.  30. , 
3  Ibid.,  pp.  3f. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  369 

They  formed  the  natural  rallying  party  for  all  who  felt  that  the  limit 
of  endurance  had  been  passed.  Multitudes  who  had  not  been  won  by 
the  Tong  Hak  religion  sympathized  with  a  Tong  Hak  revolt  against 
corrupt  and  oppressive  officials,  and  turned  to  the  organization  as 
offering  some  hope  of  release  from  their  unendurable  wrongs.  The 
same  spirit  of  blind  acceptance  of  any  chance  of  relief  doubtless  had 
led  many  to  ally  themselves  with  the  Catholics  in  earlier  days,  and 
accounts  for  some  of  the  popular  turning  to  Christianity  as  presented 
by  the  Protestant  missionaries  to-day.  From  the  Tong  Hak  point  of 
view,  moreover,  this  world  is  all  there  is.  The  Tong  Haks  had  re- 
jected the  Buddhist  doctrine  of  transmigration,  and  took  a  purely  ag- 
nostic attitude  towards  a  future  life.  Whatever  happiness  they  could 
have  they  must  get  here.  Surely  the  time  had  come  now  to  arise  and 
drive  the  miserable  brood  of  tyrannical  harpies  out  of  the  yamens, 
and  to  that  extent,  at  least,  deprive  life  of  its  woes. 

They  began  by  addressing  an  appeal  to  the  whole  country : 

"  The  five  relations  of  man  in  this  world  are  sacred.  When  king  and  courtiers 
are  harmonious,  father  and  son  loving,  blessings  follow  and  the  kingdom  will  be 
established  forever.  Our  sovereign  is  a  dutiful  son,  a  wise,  just  and  benevolent 
ruler,  but  this  cannot  be  said  of  his  courtiers.  In  ancient  times,  faithfulness  and 
bravery  were  distinguishing  virtues,  but  the  courtiers  of  to-day  are  degenerated. 
They  close  the  ears  and  eyes  of  the  King  so  that  he  neither  hears  the  appeals  of 
this  people  nor  sees  their  true  condition.  When  an  attempt  is  made  to  get  the 
truth  to  the  King,  the  act  is  branded  traitorous  and  the  man  as  a  malefactor.  In- 
competency marks  the  men  in  Seoul,  and  ability  to  extort  money  those  in  the 
country.  Great  discontent  prevails  among  the  people,  prosperity  is  insecure,  and 
life  itself  is  becoming  a  burden  and  undesirable.  The  bonds  that  ought  to  exist 
between  king  and  people,  father  and  son,  master  and  slave,  are  being  loosened. 

"  The  ancients  say,  '  Where  ceremony,  modesty,  virtue  and  righteousness  are 
wanting,  the  kingdom  cannot  stand.'  Our  country's  condition  now  is  worse  than 
it  ever  has  been  before.  Ministers  of  State,  governors  and  magistrates  are  in- 
different to  our  welfare,  their  only  concern  is  to  fill  their  coffers  at  our  expense. 
Civil  service  examinations,  once  the  glory  of  our  people,  have  become  a  place  of 
barter;  the  debt  of  the  country  remains  unpaid;  these  men  are  conceited,  pleas- 
ure-loving, adulterous,  without  fear ;  and  the  people  of  the  Eight  Provinces  are 
sacrificed  to  their  lust  and  greed.  The  officials  in  Seoul  have  their  residences  and 
rice-fields  in  the  country,  to  which  they  propose  to  flee  in  time  of  war,  and  then 
desert  the  King.1  Can  we  endure  these  things  much  longer  ?  Are  the  people 
to  be  ground  down  and  destroyed  ?     Is   there  no  help  for  us  ?     We  are  de- 

1  This  was  literally  fulfilled. 


370  Missions  and  Modern  History 

spised,  we  are  oppressed,  we  are  forsaken,  but  we  still  remain  loyal  subjects 
of  our  glorious  King.  We  are  fed  by  him,  clothed  by  him,  and  we  cannot 
sit  down  idly  and  see  the  Government  disgraced  and  ruined.  We,  the  peo- 
ple of  the  whole  realm,  have  determined  to  resist  unto  death  the  corruption 
and  oppression  of  the  officials,  and  to  support  with  zeal  and  courage  the  State. 
Let  not  the  cry  of  '  traitors  '  and  '  war  '  disturb  you,  attend  to  your  business  and 
be  prepared  to  respond  to  this  appeal  when  the  time  comes."1 

The  time  had  already  come,  and  the  Tong  Haks  sweeping  into 
Chung-chung  Province,  carried  everything  before  them.  "The 
Korean  soldiery,"  says  Mr.  Junkin,  "were  unable  to  check  their 
forces.  Governors,  magistrates  and  other  officers  were  deposed  in  sum- 
mary order,  many  meeting  swift  justice  for  past  misdeeds.  The  Tong 
Haks  gained  over  the  people  in  the  following  manner.  A  man  clothed  as 
a  high  official  was  sent  to  a  village.  He  carried  the  royal  seal  of  au- 
thority, pyeng pou,  a  reed  given  by  the  King  to  his  messengers.  This 
reed  is  broken,  one  half  remaining  in  the  Palace  and  the  other  being 
carried  by  the  official.  This  intimated  that  there  was  royalty  among 
the  Tong  Haks.  This  officer  summoned  the  villagers  before  him, 
and  asked  who  were  Tong  Haks.  The  unwilling  were  then  politely 
urged  to  join  until  the  majority  came  over.  These  then  were  sent 
against  the  halting  minority.  If  they  failed,  the  officer  summoned  the 
stubborn  one  before  him.  He  would  not  so  much  as  see  his  face,  but 
the  victim  was  made  to  kneel  on  the  ground  outside  the  officer's  door, 
and  was  told  to  join  at  once  or  take  the  consequences — death."  3 

The  growth  of  the  Tong  Haks  was  assisted  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Boxers,  by  their  claim  to  possess  supernatural  power  and  protection. 
"  It  is  stated  that  when  the  founder  was  miraculously  cured,  he 
wrote  a  number  of  mystic  signs  upon  slips  of  paper,  which  when  given 
to  any  sick  Tong  Hak  produced  instant  recovery.  I  have  in  my 
possession,"  adds  Mr.  Junkin,  "  a  copy  of  a  paper  taken  from  the 
body  of  a  Tong  Hak  recently  slain  in  the  Province  of  Chung-chung. 
The  signs  are  utterly  unintelligible,  looking  much  like  a  child's  first 
attempt  at  drawing  spiders.  The  first  reads,  '  If  you  carry  this,  hun- 
dreds of  devils  cannot  overcome  you.'  The  second  makes  the  body 
weapon  proof.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the  Tong  Haks  approached  the 
Korean  soldiers  flourishing  one  of  these   papers.     At  first  they  were 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  I,  pp.  30f. 
» Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  p.  6o. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  371 

overcome  by  his  daring,  and  were  afraid  to  fire.  Finally  a  brave, 
more  bold  than  the  rest,  ventured  a  shot,  killed  the  Tong  Hak,  and 
dispelled  the  enchantment.  The  third  gave  a  prosperous  journey,  etc. 
This  superstition  is  practiced  in  China,  and  I  am  informed  that  Jap- 
anese magicians  profess  to  heal  by  means  of  the  same  mystic  char- 
acters. The  Tong  Hak  doubtless  adopted  it  from  China.  We  are 
told  by  outsiders  of  other  miraculous  powers  belonging  to  them.  It 
was  the  custom  of  the  founder  to  ride  upon  a  cloud.  To  jump  over 
a  house,  or  from  one  hill  to  another  was  a  common  practice.  A  house 
so  commanded  by  a  Tong  Hak  suddenly  disappeared.  If  an  enemy 
suddenly  appeared  in  the  same  room  with  a  Tong  Hak,  the  latter 
mysteriously  vanished.  This  too  may  be  a  Chinese  custom.  An 
empty  purse  obeyed  the  command  of  the  magician  and  became  full."  ' 

This  element  in  the  Tong  Hak  faith  was  disclosed  by  the  confes- 
sion of  Choi  Sik  yung,  a  Tong  Hak  chief,  arrested  in  1898.  In 
transmitting  him  to  the  Supreme  Court  for  trial,  it  was  stated  in  the 
police  report  that  according  to  his  confession,  he  "was  converted  to 
the  sinister  doctrine  in  1865.  It  is  known  all  over  the  country  that  he 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  the  year  of  1893,  pretending  to  serve 
a  righteous  cause.  Barely  escaping  with  his  life,  instead  of  forsaking 
his  errors,  he  continued  to  deceive  the  foolish  with  his  baneful  claims. 
Considering  the  evil  he  has  done,  he  does  not  deserve  a  moment  of 
indulgence."  In  the  confession  referred  to,  Choi  Sik  yung  said, 
"  Having  long  led  a  wandering  life,  I  have  no  settled  home.  When 
young  I  had  a  disease,  but  was  too  poor  to  receive  medical  attentions. 
Thirty-three  years  ago  (1865)  I  met  Pak  Chien  sah,  a  merchant  in 
Kang-Wiin-Do,  who  taught  me  the  incantations  of  thirteen  characters, 
viz.,  Si-chun-ju-cho-wha-jung-yung-sie-pul-mang-man-sa-chi.  An- 
other formula,  Chi-kui-kum-chi-wen-ui-tai-kang  was  given  me  for  con- 
juring up  spirits.  Five  or  six  days  after  reciting  these  formulas,  my 
body  trembled  involuntarily,  and  I  began  to  feel  better,  though  I  was 
not  entirely  cured  of  my  complaint.  The  '  doctrine  '  having  made 
me  whole,  I  propagated  it  gradually  to  many  people.  Those  who  be- 
lieved in  my  tenets  recognized  me  as  their  teacher,  calling  me  by  the 
name  of  Puphun  or  Law  Porch."  * 

Great  use  was  made  of  this  possesssion  by  the  Tong   Haks  of 

>  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  p.  58. 
» Korean  Repository,  Vol.  V,  No.  6,  p.  235., 


oj2  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

access  to  supernatural  power  in  securing  results,  especially  in  the  last 
days  of  the  movement.     All  who  accepted  the  doctrine  were  prom- 
ised security  from  all  sickness,  debts  and  taxes  would  not  need  to  be 
paid,  and  the  crops  would  never  fail ;  while  in  battle  the  enemy's  bul- 
lets  would    be   turned    to   water.     The  magical  power  which  was 
claimed  for  the  leaders  was  unbounded,1  and  the  confidence  of  the 
Tong   Haks  in   these  spells,   and   charms  was  pathetically  strong. 
This  superstitious,  fetichistic  element  of  the  Tong  Hak  religion  was 
most  congenial  to  the  Korean  mind.     The  Koreans  are,  or  rather 
were,  Confucian  in  their  politics,  and  to  a  real  extent  the  Confucian 
ideas  had  shaped  the  thought  of  the  people   generally,  but    Con- 
fucianism had  no  such  place  with  them  as  it  had  in  China.     Bud- 
dhism had  far  less  influence.     For  centuries  no  Buddhist  temples  have 
been  allowed  in  Seoul,  and  throughout  the  country  little  heed  is  paid 
to  them.2     The  real  religion  of  the  country  has  been  Shahmanism, 
the  worship  of  spirits,  especially  the  attempt  to  placate  or  exorcise 
evil   spirits.     The  Pansu  or  Mutang,  the  sorcerer  or  sorceress,   is 
one  of  the  most  common  expressions  of  the  native  religious  ideas. 
With  musical  instruments,  offerings,  paper  images  or  other  effigies, 
with  umbrellas,  fans,  gongs,  bells,  and  other  implements,  with  charms 
and  incantations,  the  sorcerers  or  sorceresses  drive  out  evil  spirits 
from  houses  or  men,  cleanse  from  disease,  purify  defiled  places,  break 
ill  luck,  and  control  the  movements  of  spirits  and  the  souls  of  the 
dead.3     The   Mutang  ceremonies  and  other  forms  of  Shahmanist 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  6,  p.  203. 

2 "  Among  the  people  I  never  met  a  single  hearty  Buddhist."  Gilmore,  Korea 
from  its  Capital,  p.  189. 

s  »  Seoul  is  [in  1896]  a  very  quiet  city  and  at  night  it  is  as  dark  as  it  is  quiet ;  only 
here  and  there  a  little  flickering  lantern  lets  the  belated  passer-by  know  that  a  wine- 
shop rests  beneath  its  dismal  rays,  or  the  splashing  of  the  wayfarer's  boots  in  the 
mud  of  the  unpaved  streets  may  arouse  an  occasional  dog— the  sole  guardian  of  the 
city's  quiet.  Yet  every  now  and  then  one  may  hear  a  most  vigorous  double-ac- 
tion rap-tap-tapping  where  a  couple  of  women  are  ironing  or  rather  mangling  the 
family  linen.  And  when  a  lull  occurs  in  this  rhythmic  tapping  one  knows  that 
the  poor  things  have  stopped  for  a  bit  of  gossip,  only  to  fall  to  and  keep  up  their 
musical  tinkle  during  the  most  of  the  night.  About  the  only  other  noise  one 
may  hear  along  the  streets,  aside  from  the  brawling  of  some  drunken  wretch,  is 
the  jolly  racket  made  by  the  Mutang.  As  they  dance,  beat  their  tomtoms  and 
drums  and  utter  their  peculiar  calls,  a  stranger  can  hardly  believe  other  than  that 
that  particular  house  is  giving  a  family  '  hop  '  and  that  some  one  is  '  calling  off'  in 
good  old  style,  so  naturally,  too,  as  to  make  one  feel  like  joining  in  the  '  swing 
your  partners,'  etc.,  that  the  calls  seem  to  mean.  This  only  illustrates  the  con- 
trariness of  things  oriental  to  the  occidental  mind  however,  for  there  is  no  merry- 


The  Tong  Hak   Insurrection  373 

superstition  are  forbidden  in  Seoul,  but  are  carried  on  constantly 
without  the  city,  and  often  within  it.  I  was  present  in  the  summer 
of  1897,  at  some  extensive  preparations  for  a  Mutang  performance  in 
the  west  city  gate  of  Seoul,  designed  to  persuade  the  heavenly  spirits 
to  diminish  the  fall  of  rain,  which  had  been  deluging  the  country. 
By  his  Shahmanism  the  Korean  supplies  the  deficiency  of  Confucian- 
ism in  its  agnosticism  towards  the  spiritual  world,  just  as  the  Chinese 
atone  for  it  by  the  ideas  of  Buddhism  and  Taoism.  The  Korean 
"system  postulates  the  existence  and  immanence  of  innumerable  spir- 
its, who   correspond   to  the  idea  underlying  the  old  Greek  word 

making  in  this  house.  There  is  music,  dancing  and  calling  out ;  but  instead  of 
being  in  mirth  it  is  in  sadness,  for  it  is  done  by  a  paid  female  exorcist  who  is  try- 
in  a  by  her  incantations  to  drive  out  the  smallpox  or  other  evil  spirit  from  the 
person  of  some  suffering  member  of  the  family.  The  family,  if  poor,  may  have 
pawned  their  clothing  to  pay  for  this  treatment,  and  while  they  may  get  some 
pleasure  from  the  music  and  dancing  they  are  much  more  concerned  in  the  re- 
sults they  hope  to  obtain. 

"These  Mutang  represent  a  very  ancient  institution  and  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
their  methods  is  very  general  among  the  lower  classes  but  their  patrons  are  not 
all  of  the  common  people. 

"  The  Mutang  use  as  instruments  a  drum  made  in  the  shape  of  an  hour-glass 
and  over  four  feet  in  length,  copper  cymbals,  a  brass  or  copper  rod  with  little 
tinklers  suspended  from  it  by  chains  made  of  the  same  material,  a  bronze  or  cop- 
per gong  and  a  pair  of  baskets,  telescope  shaped,  for  scratching.  This  scratch- 
ing is  very  necessary  in  case  of  cholera,  for  this  disease  being  caused  by  rats 
climbing  up  inside  the  human  anatomy,  as  is  supposed,  the  scratching  is  expected 
to  alarm  and  drive  them  away,  since  it  so  nearly  resembles  the  noise  made  by 
cats. 

"  Besides  the  above  musical  (or  noisical)  instruments,  the  Mutang  use  banners 
of  paper  or  strips  of  bright  coloured  silk,  which  they  wave  and  weave  about  them 
in  the  manner  of  a  modern  serpentine  dancer ;  they  also  use  umbrellas  and  fans 
in  parts  of  their  performance.  They  also  make  use  of  images  of  men  and  ani- 
mals, sometimes  expensively  made  and  gorgeously  painted,  at  other  times  mere 
effigies  of  straw.  The  financial  condition  of  the  patient  settles  the  question  as  to 
what  instruments  or  figures  are  used. 

"  Aside  from  driving  away  the  spirit  of  disease  from  an  afflicted  person,  these 
women  are  also  called  in  to  purify  a  well  in  which  a  person  has  been  drowned, 
in  which  case  she  induces  the  spirit  of  the  drowned  person  to  leave.  Also,  after  a 
death  she  is  called  in  to  persuade  the  soul  of  the  departed  to  return  and  look 
after  those  left  behind.  She  also  deposits  the  bad  luck  of  an  individual  in  one  of 
the  before-mentioned  images,  together  with  some  coin,  which  image  being  thrown 
into  the  street  is  taken  and  torn  to  pieces  by  some  poor  beggar  or  drunken  per- 
son who  thus,  for  the  sake  of  the  coin,  takes  upon  himself  the  ill  luck  that  has 
been  annoying  the  other  person. 

"  These  Mutang  were  not  allowed  inside  the  city  walls  by  Tai  Cho  Tai  Wang, 
who  founded  the  present  dynasty  505  years  ago,  hence  their  noisy  little  temples 
are  still  seen  outside  but  near  to  the  walls.  The  priestesses,  however,  come  into 
the  city  freely.  This  order  is  recruited  from  among  hysterical  and  silly  girls  as 
well  as  from  women  who  go  into  it  for  a  livelihood  or  for  baser  reasons.     Some 


374  Missions  and  Modern  History 

demon.  These  spirits  are  not  necessarily  evil,  but  they  control  the 
affairs  and  fortunes  of  men.  They  are  a  solution  of  the  universal 
query  as  to  the  mystery  of  human  suffering.  To  them  is  attributed 
every  ill  in  life.  Each  sickness,  adversity,  misfortune  and  disaster  is 
the  result  of  their  interference  with  human  affairs.  Pansu  and  Mu- 
tang,  priests  and  priestesses  of  this  cult,  in  every  section  of  the  land 
are  living  sponsors  for  these  tenets,  and  stand  ready  to  exorcise  or 
propitiate  for  a  proper  compensation.  These  spirits  are  innumerable. 
They  rank  all  the  way  from  Tok  ga  bi — the  hobgoblin,  whose  mighty 

times  the  daughter  of  a  genteel  family  may  become  a  Mutang,  though  this  is  rare, 
as  her  people  would  rather  kill  her  than  have  her  madness  take  this  form.  Men 
marry  these  women  and  have  families  by  them  but  the  men  who  so  marry  are 
low  fellows  who  are  willing  to  be  supported  by  the  wages  of  women  however 
basely  employed.  The  order  is  said  to  date  back  4,000  years  when,  in  China, 
they  were  called  Moo  Ham  and  were  under  a  set  of  official  regulations. 

-  It  is  related  that  in  very  ancient  times  the  magistrate  of  Opp  had  much 
trouble  with  the  Mutang  of  his  district  because  they  carried  on  the  practice  of 
human  sacrifice,  for  which  purpose  the  people  assembled  once  a  year  and  brought 
beautiful  girls  who  were  thrown  into  a  river  to  appease  the  spirit  with  whom 
the  Mutang  were  in  communication.  This  magistrate  Su,  decided  to  stop  this 
evil  custom.  Accordingly  when  all  were  assembled  for  the  annual  sacrifice  and 
the  chief  Mutang  had  called  on  the  river  spirit  to  accept  the  offering  about  to  be 
made,  the  magistrate  stepped  forward  and  ordered  the  Mutang  to  go  into  the 
water  herself  as  the  girl  was  not  beautiful  enough  for  the  use  of  the  spirit.  She 
objected,  asking  a  few  days'  delay  that  she  might  obtain  a  more  acceptable  vic- 
tim. The  magistrate  would  brook  no  delay,  however,  and  forced  her  into  the 
water,  where  she  sank  and  did  not  come  to  the  surface.  He  then  forced  her  serv- 
ants in  to  see  what  had  become  of  their  mistress  and  they  also  were  drowned, 
whereupon  the  others  begged  him  to  desist  and  offered  to  give  up  the  objection- 
able custom.  This  he  agreed  to  and  the  practice  was  given  up.  It  is  said  that 
a  wag  having  painted  the  name  of  this  magistrate  on  the  bottom  of  a  sleeping 
Mutang's  foot,  she  fell  dead  on  trying  to  stand  on  that  foot  after  awakening.  It 
is  also  said  that  a  Mutang  foretold  to  Tai  Cho  Tai  Wang  that  he  would  be  a 
king,  long  before  he  had  any  kingly  ambition,  and  it  is  also  related  that  once, 
when  this  great  Tai  Cho  was  hunting,  prior  to  his  founding  the  dynasty  of 
Chosen,  he  heard  a  peculiar  grinding  noise,  and  on  investigation  found  that  it 
came  from  a  fox  who  was  busy  grinding  a  human  skull  to  fit  her  own  head, 
which,  when  she  had  put  it  on,  made  her  look  like  a  beautiful  girl.  Tai  Cho 
tried  to  shoot  the  fox,  but  did  not  succeed.  Some  time  after  this  he  heard  of  a 
wonderful  Mutang  at  the  old  capital  Song  Do,  who  could  and  did  raise  the  dead 
to  life.  In  this  way  and  in  the  healing  of  disease  she  had  gathered  almost  all  the 
money  of  the  residents  of  the  capital.  On  going  to  see  her,  he  saw  that  it  was 
the  fox  he  had  tried  to  kill  and  again  he  tried  to  take  her  life,  whereupon  she  up- 
braided him  and  told  him  she  was  working  in  his  own  interest,  that  she  was  col- 
lecting money  for  him  to  build  a  new  capital  when  he  should  become  king.  He 
asked  her  where  the  money  was  deposited  and  she  told  him  he  would  find  it  in 
the  bed  of  the  Han  River  on  the  banks  of  which  he  was  to  build  his  capital.  He 
went  to  the  place,  it  is  said,  and  found  the  money  which  he  afterwards  used  in 
building  the  city  and  walls  of  Seoul  "  (  The  Korean  Repository,  April,  1896, 
article  by  the  Hon.  H.  N.  Allen,  "  The  Mutang,"  pp.  163-165). 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  375 

gambols  are  the  subject  of  many  a  ghost  story — to  Tai  Chang  Kun, 
Lord  of  this  spirit  world,  whose  throne  fills  a  quarter  of  the  heavens. 
A  number  of  these  spirits  are  household  gods,  and  have  taken  up 
their  residence  in  the  gateway,  the  storerooms,  and  the  living  rooms, 
in  the  walls  and  the  ceilings  and  behind  the  houses.  Here  they 
are  represented  by  fetiches — a  bundle  of  straw,  a  paper  of  rice,  a 
gourd,  an  old  hat  or  a  cast  off  shoe,  hung  in  a  conspicuous  place  to 
stand  for  a  supernatural  conception.  About  these  spirits  there  has 
grown  up  a  system  of  observances,  ceremonies  and  festivals,  which, 
coming  round  both  periodically  and  occasionally,  form  quite  an 
event  in  the  routine  of  Korean  life.  Offerings  are  made  and  rites 
observed  at  such  times,  which  entail  an  amount  of  expense  and  cre- 
dulity against  which  many  a  Korean  rebels.  Upon  the  country 
people  this  system  has  a  great  hold.  More  than  once,"  says  the 
Korean  missionary  whom  I  am  quoting,  "  we  have  been  asked  to  des- 
troy fetiches  rotten  with  age,  by  those  who  desired  to  break  with 
them,  because  they  were  afraid  to  touch  them  themselves.  There  is 
many  and  many  a  Korean  in  straightened  circumstances  to-day,  who 
has  been  reduced  from  affluence  to  poverty  by  the  expenses  entailed 
by  Shahmanistic  observances  to  save  the  life  of  a  beloved  parent  or 
child."  l 

This  superstitious  temper  of  the  Korean  people  fitted  them  to  ac- 
cept the  magical  claims  of  the  Tong  Haks,  and  gave  the  latter  so 
long  as  they  were  successful,  a  strong  hold  upon  the  common  people. 

Incidentally  the  Tong  Hak  movement  was  anti-foreign.  The 
Boxer  Uprising  was  primarily  this,  and  secondarily  a  movement  for 
political  reformation  at  home.  The  Tong  Haks  put  the  latter  first, 
but  both  the  Confucian  exclusiveness  which  was  part  of  their  inherit- 
ance, and  the  traditional  anti- foreign  policy  of  the  nation  led  them  to 
declare  themselves  against  the  presence  of  the  outsiders  and  barbar- 
ians. The  Tong  Hak  deputation  which  came  to  Seoul  in  1893, 
threatened,  unless  their  demands  were  granted,  to  drive  all  foreigners 
from  the  country.  In  his  confession,  Choi  Sik  yeng  said  that  after 
the  visit  of  the  deputation  to  Seoul,  hearing  that  the  Government 
was  going  to  send  troops  to  arrest  them,  some  of  them  proposed  that 
they  "should  set  up  an  anti-Japan  flag,  and,  making  the  fair  ground 
of  Po-un  their  rendezvous,  start  an  insurrection  along  the  Han  River 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  4,  pp.  l^bi. 


376  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

near  Seoul."  '  As  soon  as  the  insurrection  did  break  out,  the  Tong 
Haks  began  to  threaten  to  kill  the  Westerners  and  all  who  followed 
the  Western  religion.  Their  anti-foreign  feeling,  however,  save  as 
against  the  Japanese,  was  not  strong  and  was  easily  overcome.  Ex- 
planations of  Christianity  disarmed  their  antagonism,  but  their 
enmity  against  the  Japanese  was  implacable.  A  missionary  who 
lived  among  them  writes  in  the  Korean  Repository,  in  an  article  en- 
titled "Seven  Months  among  the  Tong  Haks,"  of  some  fears  at  the 
first  of  what  they  might  do,  so  that,  as  he  says,  "Two  of  our  friends 
started  out  into  the  dark  to  see  an  acquaintance  who  had  become  a 
leader  among  the  Tong  Haks  (who  had  come  within  two  miles  of 
him).  On  into  the  morning  they  conversed  concerning  the  Word  of 
God  and  its  deeper  meaning.  The  rebel  thanked  them  for  their  in- 
struction, promising  to  use  his  influence  in  protecting  the  foreigner 
and  the  few  Christians,  writing  a  letter  to  the  several  other  leaders  in 
the  same  strain.  It  had  the  desired  effect  as  far  as  we  were  con- 
cerned, and  on  the  next  day  they  passed  by  in  hundreds,  levying  as 
much  rice  as  they  wished  on  every  village  or  healthy  person.  On 
that  round  they  fell  in  with  and  killed  ten  Japanese  merchants  who 
were  detained  by  head  winds  on  their  way  to  Pyeng  Yang.  About 
the  same  time  seven  Japanese  shipwrecked  merchants  were  also  shot, 
speared  and  mutilated,  and  their  property  plundered.  Two  or  three 
Buddhist  priests  were  also  dispatched,  being  suspected  of  being  spies 
sent  by  Japanese  to  find  the  bodies  of  the  dead  or  where  they  had 
been  buried.  Clocks  and  watches  belonging  to  the  murdered  Japa- 
nese were  brought  to  me  to  explain  their  use  and  set  them  going. 
Having  once  thus  come  to  an  understanding  with  a  few  of  the  leaders, 
we  at  length  became  on  friendly  terms  with  them  all,  or  nearly  so, 
and  when  hundreds  of  them  would  be  passing,  the  leaders  would  be 
sure  to  call  and  have  a  chat  while  their  followers  were  made  to  re- 
main without  in  the  distance  through  respect  for  us."  2 

Towards  the  dynasty  and  the  King  himself,  as  has  been  said,  the 
Tong  Haks  at  the  outset  professed  complete  loyalty.  Their  procla- 
mation in  the  spring  of  1894,  spoke  only  in  kind  terms  of  him.  In- 
deed, while  many  of  his  subjects  called  him  weak,  the  people  gener- 
ally believed  in  the  kindliness  and  honesty  of  the  King,  who  is  in 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  V,  No.  6,  p.  235. 
»  Korean  Repository,  \ rol.  II,  No.  6,  pp.  2QT,i. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  377 

Korea  as  absolute  as  any  Asiatic  monarch,  not  excepting  the  Amir  or 
Shah,  bound  by  no  constitution  and  hampered  by  no  advisory  or 
legislative  body,  save  as  he  pleases  to  appoint  his  own  ministers.  1 
As  the  Tong  Hak  rebellion  went  on,  however,  it  took  up  a  more  hos- 
tile attitude  towards  the  Emperor.  His  treatment  of  their  demands, 
his  continued  support  of  the  officials  whose  corruptions  oppressed 
them,  some  entrance  at  least  into  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  possi- 
bility of  better  government  as  learned  from  contact  with  the  foreigner, 
the  recollection  of  old  prophecies  that  the  present  dynasty  was  to  last 
for  only  five  hundred  years,  and  that  these  were  already  complete,  and 
lastly,  the  feeling  that  the  King  had  delivered  himself  into  the  hands 
of  foreigners  by  calling  them  in  to  suppress  their  movement,  when  he 
should  have  removed  the  abuses  of  which  they  complained,  combined 
to  make  of  the  Tong  Hak  uprising  against  the  oppression  of  under- 
lings, an  insurrection  against  the  responsible  Government,  that  is,  the 
King.2 

The  Tong  Haks  began  their  insurrection  in  the  spring  of  1894. 
Choi  Sik  yeng  says  the  movement  began  in  Korea  as  a  popular  insur- 
rection, quite  independent  of  the  Tong  Haks,  but  that  "  Chuen  Bong 
jun,  a  leader  of  the  sect,  availing  himself  of  the  movement,  made 
the  rising  both  political  and  religious,"  summoning  the  Tong  Haks 
to  take  up  the  cause  and  invading  the  province  of  Chung-Cheng. 3 
The  authorities  in  Seoul  evidently  did  not  appreciate  the  seriousness 
of  the  movement.  The  King  answered  the  Tong  Hak  proclamation 
with  expressions  of  great  solicitude,  and  with  assurances  to  the  peo- 
ple in  the  discontented  districts  that  so  far  as  they  were  the  victims 
of  injustice,  relief  should  be  given,  and  there  was  "an  outburst  of 
royal  wrath  against  the  ringleaders  of  the  Tong  Haks  who  had  com- 
mitted overt  acts  against  the  Government  as  well  as  against  officials 
guilty  of  more  flagrant  oppression."  But  the  insurrection  grew. 
The  capital  of  Chulla  province  fell  into  the  rebels'  hands.  A  thou- 
sand or  more  royal  troops  were  ordered  to  the  seat  of  war.  What  the 
outcome  of  the  struggle  would  have  been  if  things  had  been  allowed 
to  take  their  natural  course,  no  one  can  say.     They  were  not  allowed 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  II,  pp.  429T. 

2  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  6,  p.  20 ;  Bishop,  Korea  and  Her  Neighbours, 
p.  264. 

3  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  V,  No.  6,  p.  235. 


378  Missions  and  Modern   History 

to  take  their  natural  course.  The  King  was  urged  by  the  Ming  fac- 
tion in  the  capital,  which  was  the  faction  dominant  at  the  time,  and 
which  was  the  party  in  favour  of  China  and  of  conservative  and  reac- 
tionary policies,  to  ask  China  for  aid  in  suppressing  the  revolt.  He 
at  last  yielded,  and  on  June  7,  1894,  China  gave  notice  to  Japan 
in  accordance  with  the  Tientsin  treaty  of  1885,  that  she  was  sending 
troops  to  Korea,  and  on  the  same  day  Japan  replied  that  she  would 
send  troops.  A  week  later  Japan  notified  China  that  the  departure 
of  more  troops  would  be  regarded  as  a  hostile  act.  Meanwhile  the 
Korean  Government  alarmed  at  the  possible  outcome  of  its  course  in 
inviting  the  Chinese  troops,  and  remembering  the  collision  between  Chi- 
nese and  Japanese  influences  in  1884,  asked  the  other  Treaty  Powers  to 
procure  the  withdrawal  of  both  the  Chinese  and  the  Japanese  forces, 
declaring  that  the  rebellion  had  been  suppressed.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  Western  Powers  at  once  sought  to  secure  this  end,  and 
the  Chinese  representatives  consented  to  withdraw.  But  Japan  l\ad 
been  waiting  for  just  this  opportunity,  and  instead  of  complying  with 
the  Korean  Government's  request,  demanded  on  July  20,  that  Korea 
should  command  the  Chinese  troops  to  leave  the  country.1  The 
King,  however,  had  invited  them,  and  instead  of  complying  with 
Japan's  demand,  again  sought  to  have  both  Chinese  and  Japanese 
troops  leave  simultaneously.  Japan's  answer  was  to  march  on  the 
Royal  Palace,  and  with  the  loss  of  a  few  Korean  soldiers  who  made 
resistance,  to  take  possession  of  the  King.  At  once  thereafter,  Major 
General  Oshima  marched  against  the  Chinese  troops  at  Ai  San,  and  the 
China-Japan  war  had  begun,  although  it  was  not  formally  declared 
until  August  1st.  The  war  was  in  reality  soon  over.  The  battle  of 
Pyeng  Yang  settled  it  on  land,  on  September  15,  and  the  naval  en- 
gagement at  the  mouth  of  the  Yalu  River  on  the  sea  on  September 
7th.  Hostilities  continued  for  some  time  however,  and  the  treaty  of 
Shimonoseki  which  adjusted  the  new  relations  of  the  three  nations, 
was  not  signed  until  April  17th.  Old  things  passed  away  that  day, 
and  a  new  era  dawned  for  China,  Korea  and  Japan.     Little  did  Choi 

1  As  to  the  proceedings  at  this  point  there  is  some  difference  of  opinion.  See 
Douglass,  China,  p.  434.  Some  allege  that  the  Chinese  first  demanded  that  all 
the  Japanese  men  of  war  "  should  leave  the  Chinese  ports  by  the  20th  of  July." 
In  any  event,  Japan  had  a  sincere  desire  to  see  Korea  opened  and  reformed,  and 
it  was  a  defence  of  her  course  in  the  matter  that  for  her  to  withdraw  threw  Korea 
back  into  the  arms  of  China  and  the  reactionary  element,  which  had  too  long 
dominated  the  land. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  379 

Chei  Ou  dream  when  he  founded  his  new  religion  thirty-five  years 
before,  that  his  influence  would  radically  change  the  destinies  of  these 
three  peoples. 

The  Tong  Haks  gave  Japan  the  opportunity  for  which  she  had 
been  waiting  for  years.  It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  history  that  their 
reward  was  complete  suppression  at  her  hands.  The  Korean  Gov- 
ernment was  not  ingenuous  in  representing  that  the  rebellion  was 
over.  During  the  autumn  of  the  year  the  Tong  Haks  had  spread  far 
and  wide.  iTJie  disturbance  of  the  country,  the  dominance  of  Japan, 
the  weakening  of  the  Korean  Government,  the  confusion  of  factions 
at  Seoul  and  the  paralysis  of  authority,  the  Tai  Wan  Kun,  the  King's 
father,  .  who  was  in  control,  pulling  one  way  and  the  progressives 
another,,1  gave  the  Tong  Haks  conditions  of  growth  peculiarly  fa- 
vourable; and  the  uprising  spread  from  the  southern  provinces  as  far 
as  the  provinces  of  Whang  Hai  and  Kang  Wiin.  For  a  time  it 
seemed  that  the  Tong  Haks  would  succeed  after  the  war,  as  they 
might  not  have  succeeded  before.  They  attacked  and  burned  magis- 
tracies. Bands  of  them  went  about  the  country  plundering  and 
squeezing,  and  they  propagated  their  religious  doctrine  of  magic  and 
superstition  more  energetically  than  ever.  "  All  sorts  of  stories  were 
circulated  by  the  leaders.  .  .  .  Three  steamboat  loads  of  Japa- 
nese heads  were  landed  near  Pyeng  Yang,  and  all  put  together  made 
a  large  mountain.  The  Chinese  were  already  in  possession  of  Pyeng 
Yang,  and  marching  south.  Strange  red-coated  soldiers  had  landed 
in  Chemulpo,  and  were  driving  out  the  Japanese.  Also  the  long 
prophesied  '  South  Korean  '  had  risen  up,  and  soldiers  were  pouring 
in  from  the  south  to  give  deliverance  to  the  nation."  a  The  Korean 
troops  were  helpless  against  the  rebels  and  made  themselves  even 
more  unpopular  by  their  looting  and  plunder  than  the  Tong  Haks. 
In  December,  however,  the  Government  aided  by  some  companies  of 
Japanese  soldiers,  made  a  resolute  effort  to  put  the  rebels  down,  and 
by  the  following  spring  their  power  was  broken  and  the  uprising  was 
at  an  end. 

Thus  closed  what  Mrs.   Bishop  calls '-a  petty  chapter  of  ancient 
history."  3     But  was  it  petty  ?     It  was  a  movement  which  represented 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  3,  p.  112. 
5  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  6,  p.  205. 
3  Bishop,  Korea  and  Her  Neighbours,  p.  181. 


380  Missions  and  Modern  History 

a  deep  sense  of  political  oppression.  It  led  men  to  risk  life  for  a  ref- 
ormation of  their  country.  Its  leaders  gave  their  lives  for  it,  and 
their  blackened  heads,  hung  by  the  hair  from  a  pole,  looked  down 
upon  the  passers-by  at  the  little  West  Gate  of  Seoul,  the  last  of 
January,  1895.  It  was  a  movement  inspired  by  the  deep  though 
childish  beliefs  of  thousands  of  men  regarding  the  spiritual  world. 
It  did  what  it  could  to  secure  relief  from  tyranny  and  injustice,  and  to 
get  help  for  men  from  the  unseen.  And  it  was  not  a  mere  lawless 
upheaval.  "It  is  wonderful,"  writes  one  who  lived  among  them 
when  they  were  at  their  worst,  "  how  little  plundering  they  did,  con- 
sidering the  large  numbers  who  followed  for  no  other  purpose."1 
Surely  such  a  chapter  of  history  maybe  called  pathetic,  but  not  petty. 
And  when  we  turn  to  consider  the  consequences  of  the  Tong  Hak 
uprising,  it  becomes  in  the  extent  and  quality  of  its  influences,  one 
of  the  great  movements  of  history.  It  may  be  said  that,  these  results 
would  all  have  been  attained  sooner  or  later  in  any  event,  if  not 
through  the  Tong  Haks,  then  by  some  other  agency.  It  is  sufficient 
to  reply  that  we  are  dealing  with  history,  and  what  did  happen  in  it. 
The  fact  that  some  one  else  would  have  discovered  the  great  African 
lakes  if  Livingstone  had  not  done  so,  does  not  make  their  discovery 
by  Livingstone  less  significant. 

As  the  occasion  of  the  China- Japan  war  the  Tong  Hak  uprising 
completely  changed  the  position  of  those  two  nations  towards  Korea, 
towards  one  another,  and  towards  the  world.  The  war  revealed  to  the 
world  the  real  weakness  of  China.  Men  had  believed  that  she 
possessed  enormous  military  resources.  When  the  struggle  began, 
they  smiled  and  said  that  China  would  simply  wear  Japan  out ;  her  sol- 
diers were  so  contemptuous  of  death  that  they  would  not  flee,  her 
multitudes  were  so  great  that  her  armies  could  be  recruited  forever, 
for  years  she  had  been  supplying  herself  with  foreign  arms  and 
ammunition,  and  mastering  the  art  of  war  and  drilling  her  troops  on 
Western  principles.  The  conflict  with  Japan  exposed  the  fallacy  and 
hollowness  of  all  this.  The  vast  sums  expended  on  military  sup- 
plies had  gone  into  the  pockets  of  corrupt  officials.  There  was  no 
modern  equipment  and  no  military  discipline.  China  was  shown  to 
be  from  a  military  point  of  view,  unequipped,  untrained,  helpless. 
This  revelation  was  made  to  the  West,  and  a  new  treatment  of  China 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  6,  p.  208. 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  381 

began.  Formerly  she  had  been  robbed  warily.  Now  she  could  be 
badgered  and  insulted  and  deprived  of  her  territory  in  open  day. 
Henceforth  it  became  an  international  question  discussed  without  re- 
straint, as  to  what  would  become  of  China,  and  how  the  Western 
Nations  should  treat  her  so  as  to  make  her  most  lucrative.  A  new 
contempt  appeared  in  their  tone  towards  her,  and  their  consideration 
of  her  pitiable  case.  And  of  course,  China  in  some  measure,  per- 
ceived all  this,  and  was  influenced  by  it.  Part  of  China  was  roused 
to  fresh  dislike  and  distrust  of  the  West.  Some  who  believed  in  prog- 
ress, saw  in  this  attitude  of  the  West,  ground  to  fear  that  China 
would  never  be  allowed  to  profit  by  the  stern  lessons  of  the  war. 
Others,  who  did  not  want  China  disturbed,  were  angry  because  Japan, 
a  despised  nation,  had  learned  from  the  West  the  secrets  by  which 
she  had  humiliated  their  country.  They  were  more  desirous  than 
ever  that  the  country  should  be  closed  against  these  hated  foreigners, 
who  were  disturbing  everything  that  was  established,  and  to  whose 
hearts  a  reverent  piety  toward  the  past  was  a  stranger.  Beside  these 
classes,  however,  there  was  another  in  China,  to  whom  the  war 
taught  a  different  lesson.  It  saw  in  Western  science  and  education 
the  only  hope  for  China.  The  country  must  awake  and  learn  from 
the  West.  The  Reform  Movement  of  1898  in  China,  was  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  war.  The  Tong  Haks  who  wished  to  see  Korea  tran- 
quil and  quiet  and  righteously  governed  under  old  Confucian  models, 
had  struck  the  most  terrible  blow  ever  given  at  Confucian  political  in- 
stitutions in  China.  And  the  Boxer  Uprising,  with  all  that  it  in- 
volved and  with  all  its  consequences,  is  due  to  what  came  in  China's 
history  during  five  years,  as  a  result  of  the  Japan-China  war  and  in 
consequence  of  the  Tong  Hak  uprising  which  produced  it.1 

1  "  Ten  years  was  a  short  time  in  a  nation's  history,  but  let  them  consider  for  a 
moment  what  had  happened  to  China  in  the  last  decade ;  ten  years  ago  China 
claimed  a  protectorate  over  Korea — one  had  only  to  think  of  China  protecting 
any  foreign  territory  against  aggression  to  realize  what  a  change  had  come  about 
in  this  short  period  of  time ;  then  she  had  a  reputation  for  latent  power  and  re- 
sources which  enabled  her  to  have  almost  a  free  hand  in  dealing  with  the  prob- 
lems with  which  she  was  confronted ;  now  she  was  weakly  relying  upon  the  con- 
flicting interests  of  Foreign  Powers  to  protect  one  of  her  richest  provinces  from 
foreign  aggression  ;  then,  she  had  practically  no  foreign  debt,  now  she  had  lia- 
bilities amounting  to  ^120,000,000,  all  incurred  by  the  blunders  of  her  Govern- 
ment. The  reputation  of  the  statesmen  who  had  controlled  her  destiny  during 
this  eventful  period  would  certainly  be  an  unenviable  one  when  the  history  of  our 
time  came  to  be  written.  The  Japanese  war  had  much  less  influence  than  was 
expected,  as  China  was  not  made  to  feel  the  real  effect  of  an  unsuccessful  war  ; 


382  Missions  and  Modern  History 

And  while  the  results  have  not  been  so  appalling  in  the  case  of 
Japan,  they  have  been  very  real  and  important.  The  war  gave 
Japan  her  recognized  position  among  the  nations.  It  secured  for  her 
a  measure  of  respect  abroad  which  was  at  once  felt  in  Japan,  and 
which  was  as  powerful  an  agency  as  any  in  making  Japanese  feeling 
more  tolerant  and  kindly  towards  foreigners.  It  fed  the  instinct  of 
nationality,  patriotism  and  militarism  in  the  Japanese.  It  hastened 
perhaps  the  revision  of  the  treaties  with  the  West,  and  the  abolition 
for  the  first  time  in  history  of  the  rights  of  extra  territoriality  claimed 
by  Christian  states  in  non-Christian  nations.  It  admitted  thus  to  the 
councils  of  the  civilized  world,  the  nations  of  Christendom,  a  new 
nation  which  did  not  regard  itself  as  Christian.  It  created  a  new 
situation  of  great  peril  in  removing  from  the  dual  oversight  of  Korea, 
the  Chinese  Government,  and  substituting,  as  Japan's  rival,  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Russia.  Totally  new  problems  in  world  politics,  in  the 
balanced  relations  of  nations,  in  the  expansion  of  the  West  and  the 
development  of  the  East  were  thus  created. 

Indeed,  the  consequences  of  the  movement  of  the  obscure  Korean 
who  was  beheaded  under  a  mistaken  impression  in  1S65,  are  affect- 
ing the  whole  world.  The  Pacific  Ocean  has  a  new  place  in  the 
world's  plans,  our  own  Western  coast  a  new  place  in  our  own  hopes  and 
projects,  international  politics  has  a  wider  reach,  and  the  chance  of 
friction  is  at  once  increased  and  diminished  by  its  enlargement  of 
field,  and  all  the  thoughts  of  men  are  broader,  more  catholic,  because 
of  Choi's  life  and  death.  Few  movements  of  modern  times  or  of  any 
times  have  accomplished  more  than  has  followed  as  the  consequence 
of  his  religious  meditations  half  a  century  ago,  and  of  the  loyal  zeal 
of  his  disciples  when  they  spread  their  petition  for  his  posthumous 
honour  on  their  red  covered  table  before  the  King's  gate  in  Seoul  in 
the  spring  of  1893. 

she  adopted  a  policy,  which  had  borne  bitter  fruit,  of  relying  upon  foreign  inter- 
vention to  save  her  territory  from  alienation,  and  the  financiers  of  Europe  com- 
peted to  lend  her  ^50,000,000,  which  enabled  her  to  pay  off  the  Japanese  indem- 
nity without  an  effort,  and  have  something  over ;  to-day  there  would  be  no  com- 
petition to  lend  her  a  tenth  of  this  sum  on  far  more  onerous  terms:  it  was  only 
now  when  she  had  to  pay  the  interest  of  this  money,  and  in  addition  the  accu- 
mulated charges  incurred  by  Boxer  madness,  that  China  was  beginning  to  realize 
where  her  blunder  was  leading  her"  (Sixteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Christian  and  General  Knowledge  among  the  Chinese,  1903,  p. 
35.  Remarks  at  Annual  Meeting  by  Mr.  F.  Anderson,  Ex-chairman  of  Shanghai 
Municipal  Council). 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  383 

And  while  the  consequences  of  Choi's  movement  have  been  vastly 
greater  for  the  world  at  large  and  for  other  nations,  than  they  have 
been  for  Korea,  they  have  been  transforming  there.     The  war  re- 
sulted in  the  independence  of  Korea.     For  centuries  it  had  been 
under  the  suzerainty  of  China,  although  that  relationship  had  been 
long   disliked   by   Japan,   which    felt   that   on   many  grounds  that 
position   of  authority  belonged   to   her.     She  won   it   by  the  war. 
China's    political    control    of    Korea   was    destroyed   forever,   and 
Korea's  destinies  passed  into  Japan's  hands.     Japan's  position  in  the 
matter  was  one  of  great  delicacy.     She  had  never  been  popular  in 
Korea.     The  Japanese    merchants  and  others  in  the  country  were 
thoroughly  disliked.     At  the  same  time,  tact   and  considerateness 
would  soon  have  secured  to  the  Japanese  the  favour  of  the  people, 
who  were  ready  to  welcome  and  appreciate  the  introduction  of  the 
reforms  which  were  at  once  proposed.     The  Japanese  did  not  purpose 
to   treat   carelessly   with  necessity  of  reform.       Count  Inouye    had 
come  to  Korea  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  to  deal  with  this  question, 
and  proposed  twenty  articles  of  reform,  asserting  the  supremacy  and 
responsibility  of  the  sovereign  and  his  amenableness  to  law,  the  separa- 
tion of  the  Royal  Household  from  affairs  of  Government,  definition 
of  the  powers  of  the  cabinet  and  departments,  the  regulation  of  taxa- 
tion,  the  preparation  of   an  annual  budget,  reorganization  of  the 
army,  abolition  of  boasting  and  empty  show,  the  codification  of 
criminal  laws,  unification  of  the  police,  limitation  of  power  of  local 
authorities,   abolition   of   bribery   and    favouritism,   of  rivalry  and 
intrigue,  the  appointment  of  young  men  who  should  be  sent  abroad 
to  study,  and  the  employment  of  expert  advisers  by  the  Government 
departments,  etc.1     These  reforms  contemplated  the  purification  of 
the  Government  and  the  independence  of  Korea.     It  was  a  notable 
achievement.     Even  if  the  Tong  Haks  had  been  suppressed,  here 
was  the  fulfillment  of  all  their  desires.     A  great  deal  that  Japan 
advised  she  proceeded  to  help  Korea  to  adopt,  and  an  era  of  reform 
set  in  that  bade  fair  to  revolutionize  the  country.     But  as  in  China, 
in   1898,  the  pace  was  too  fast,  and  Japan's  course  was  marked   by 
many    blunders    and     by   one     great    crime,    the    murder    of    the 
Korean  Queen,  who  was  believed  to  be  hostile  to  Japanese  influ- 
ence,   at   the   hint  and   proven   instigation   of  the   Japanese   Min- 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  3,  pp.  114-118. 


384  Missions  and  Modern  History 

ister,  Viscount  Miura.  The  result  was  the  utter  destruction 
for  a  time  of  Japan's  control,  and  the  Government  of  the  country 
by  the  King  from  the  Russian  legation,  where  he  fled  and 
lived  for  twelve  months.  Russia  acted  temperately  in  the  matter, 
however,  and  in  due  time  the  King  returned  to  his  own  palace,  tak- 
ing up  his  residence  in  a  set  of  new  buildings  constructed  during  his 
stay  in  the  Russian  legation.     And  by  convention x  between  Japan 

1  The  following  were  the  two  most  important  agreements  between  Russia  and 
Japan  made  public  after  the  China- Japan  war : 

Protocol  of  June  g,  i8gb. 

The  Secretary  of  State,  Prince  Lobanoff-Rostovsky,  Foreign  Minister  of  Russia 
and  Marshal  Marquis  Yamagata,  Ambassador  Extraordinary  of  His  Majesty,  the 
Emperor  of  Japan,  having  exchanged  their  views  on  the  situation  in  Korea, 
agreed  upon  the  following  articles. 

I.  For  the  remedy  of  the  financial  difficulties  of  Korea,  the  Governments  of 
Russia  and  Japan,  will  advise  the  Korean  Government  to  retrench  all  superfluous 
expenditure  and  to  establish  a  balance  between  expenses  and  revenues.  If,  in 
consequence  of  reforms  deemed  indispensable,  it  may  become  necessary  to  have 
recourse  to  foreign  loans,  both  Governments  shall,  by  mutual  concert,  give  their 
support  to  Korea. 

II.  The  Governments  of  Russia  and  Japan  shall  endeavour  to  leave  to  Korea, 
as  far  as  the  financial  and  commercial  situation  of  that  country  will  permit,  the 
formation  and  maintenance  of  a  national  armed  force  and  police  of  such  propor- 
tions as  will  be  sufficient  for  the  preservation  of  internal  peace  without  foreign 
support. 

III.  With  a  view  to  facilitate  communications  with  Korea,  the  Japanese  Gov- 
ernment may  continue  to  administer  the  telegraph  lines  which  are  at  present  in 
its  hands. 

It  is  reserved  to  Russia  (the  right)  of  building  a  telegraph  line  between  Seoul 
and  her  frontiers. 

These  different  lines  can  be  repurchased  by  the  Korean  Government,  as  soon 
as  it  has  the  means  to  do  so. 

IV.  In  case  the  above  matters  should  require  a  more  exact  or  detailed  ex- 
planation, or  if  subsequently  some  other  points  should  present  themselves,  upon 
which  it  should  be  necessary  to  confer,  the  Representatives  of  both  Governments 
shall  be  authorized  to  negotiate  in  a  spirit  of  friendship. 

(Signed)  LOBANOFF.   YAMAGATA. 

Moscow,  June  g,  i8gb. 

Protocol  of  April  23,  i8g8. 

Article  I.  The  Imperial  Governments  of  Japan  and  Russia  definitely  recog- 
nize the  sovereignty  and  entire  independence  of  Korea,  and  mutually  agree  to 
refrain  from  all  direct  interference  in  the  internal  affairs  of  that  country. 

Article  2.  Desiring  to  avoid  every  possible  cause  of  misunderstanding  in  the 
future,  the  Imperial  Governments  of  Japan  and  Russia  mutually  agree,  in  case 
Korea  should  apply  to  Japan  or  to  Russia  for  advice  and  assistance,  not  to  take 
any  measure  in  the  nomination  of  military  instructors  and  financial  advisers 
without  having  previously  come  to  a  mutual  agreement  on  the  subject. 

Article  3.     In  view  of  the  large  development  of  Japanese  commercial  and  in- 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  385 

and  Russia,  the  independence  of  the  country  was  guaranteed,  though 
Russia  secured  in  these  conventions,  for  a  few  years,  without  a  blow 
or  an  effort,  but  only  by  Japan's  folly,  the  position  previously  held 
by  China  as  joint  guardian  over  Korea  with  Japan. 

Korea's  more  real  independence,  however,  Japan's  aggressive 
share  in  her  Government  being  withdrawn,  was  offset  by  the  collapse 
of  the  reforms  which  Japan  introduced.  It  was  impossible  to  get 
wholly  back  to  the  old  corrupt  conditions,  but  the  country  went  far 
in  that  way.  The  rotten  underlings,  and  even  their  superiors  in  the 
country  magistracies,  resumed  the  old  practice  of  squeezing,  collect- 
ing illegal  taxes,  or  forcing  the  payment  of  taxes  twice.1  But  the 
feeling  which  the  eclipse  of  Japan,  the  advent  of  Russia  and  the 
character  of  the  King's  advisers  encouraged— namely,  that  the  old 
order  was  to  be  revived,  died  away,  Russia's  self-restraining  course 

dustrial  enterprises  in  Korea,  as  well  as  the  considerable  number  of  Japanese 
resident  in  that  country,  the  Imperial  Government  will  not  impede  the  develop- 
ment of  commercial  and  industrial  relations  between  Japan  and  Korea. 

Since  1898  and  until  the  Russia- Japan  war  the  following  were  the  engagements 
that  have  been  entered  into  between  Russia  and  Korea :  A  special  settlement 
at  Masampo,  April  20,  1900.  A  whale  fishing  arrangement  which  allows  the 
Russians  to  try  out  the  whales  on  the  Korean  coast  at  stations  where  a  force  of 
men  and  some  buildings  may  be  maintained,  and  which  might  be  construed  to 
cover  actual  settlements.  April  3,  1901,  a  renewed  and  enlarged  timber  con- 
cession covering  the  water  shed  of  the  Yalu  and  Tumen  Rivers,  and  practically 
giving  to  Russia  the  control  of  the  northern  frontier  of  Korea.  A  non-alienation 
clause  covering  the  island  of  Ko  Chei  Do  near  Masampo.  A  promise  that  no 
more  mines  will  be  granted  to  foreigners,  and  that  if  any  one  is  entrusted  with 
the  operation  of  the  Korean  Household  Mines  (which  include  all  the  good  mines 
of  the  country)  such  operator  shall  be  a  Russian.  An  agreement  that  if  capital 
is  to  be  secured  for  the  completion  of  the  Northwestern  Railway,  from  Seoul  to 
Weichu  such  capital  shall  be  secured  from  Russia,  and  the  work  be  entrusted  to 
Russian  engineers. 

As  between  Japan  and  Korea,  it  may  be  noted  that  on  September  8,  1898,  a 
concession  was  granted  to  a  Japanese  Syndicate  for  a  railway  to  connect  Seoul 
and  Fusan.  Work  was  formally  begun  on  this  road  August  4,  1901.  On 
August  23,  1900,  the  Chicksan  Mining  Concession  was  granted  to  a  Japanese 
firm.  On  October  3,  1900,  an  additional  Fisheries  Convention  was  agreed  to 
between  Korea  and  Japan.  On  December  8,  1900,  permission  was  granted  to  a 
Japanese  Company  to  reclaim  a  portion  of  the  foreshore  at  Fusan.  On  May  20, 
1 90 1,  a  special  Japanese  settlement  at  Masampo  was  announced.  With  reference 
to  the  Seoul-Chemulpo  Railway,  it  might  be  added  that  this  line,  begun  by 
Americans  in  1897,  was>  on  December  1,  1897,  mortgaged  to  the  Japan  Specie 
Bank,  and  on  December  31,  1898,  formally  taken  over  by  a  Japanese  Syndicate 
headed  by  Baron  Shibusawa.  The  road  was  opened  for  traffic  to  the  river  near 
Seoul  on  September  18,  1899,  and  to  Seoul  on  the  completion  of  the  bridge,  July 
8,  1900. 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  IV,  No.  3,  pp.  1  iof. 


386  Missions  and  Modern  History 

contributing  to  this  end,  and  in  1898,  the  situation  showed  a  distinct 
improvement  over  the  conditions  against  which  the  Tong  Haks  re- 
belled. The  laws  had  been  improved.  The  work  begun  by  the 
Japanese  did  not  die.  A  foreign  adviser  put  some  morality  and  in- 
tegrity into  the  financial  department  and  the  country  began  to  revive 
and  prosper.2  But  the  course  of  Korea  since  the  war  proves  the 
difficulty  of  grafting  reforms  on  a  corrupt  stock.  To  guarantee  a 
permanent  reform  in  the  government  and  methods  of  a  nation  you 
must  first  produce  reformation  in  its  spirit.  The  reform  spirit  in  the 
Government  was  too  slight  to  issue  in  any  great  reforms  of  its  own 
or  to  maintain  any  great  reforms  imposed  from  without.  But  the 
spirit  of  life  had  entered,  and  an  account  of  the  politics  of  Seoul  for 
the  last  five  years,  or  indeed  for  the  last  twenty  years  would  reveal 
the  constant  struggle  between  the  conservative  and  the  progressive 
elements,  breaking  out  now  and  then  in  open  assassination,  as  it  had 
done  in  the  emeute  of  1884,  or  in  half-ludicrous,  half- pathetic  ap- 
peals for  royal  assent  to  popular  demands,  and  half-ludicrous,  half- 
contemptible  antagonism  to  these  from  the  reactionary  party,  as 
seen  in  the  Independence  Club — Peddlers'  Guild  riots  in  1899.2 

The  influence  of  Japan  has  been  steadily  on  the  side  of  reform  and 
progress.  If  as  a  result  of  the  war  with  Russia  she  retains  permanent 
ascendency  over  Korea,  yet  recognizing  Korea's  complete  independ- 
ence as  she  has  done,  her  influence  will  continue  for  good.  She  will 
maintain  religious  freedom,3  political  order  and  require  an  inner  ref- 
ormation that  will  involve  the  purification  of  civil  administration 
and  of  the  courts.  There  will  doubtless  be  disturbances  but  back  of 
the  jarring  conflict  of  political  factions  and  under  the  political  in- 
fluence of  national  pressure  however  exercised,  there  is  a  deeper  force 
at  work  feeding  the  best  influences  at  work  for  Korea's  regeneration, 
and  with  increasing  power  moulding  the  minds  of  the  Korean  people 
and  fitting  them  to  exercise  the  rights  which  it  may  be  hoped  will 
come  to  them  as  soon  as  they  are  ready  to  receive  them. 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  IV,  No.  4,  p.  I47. 

2  See  account  of  Korean  Guilds  in  Gifford,  Every-day  Life  in  Korea,  Ch.  V, 
and   k'orea>i  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  pp.  42II. 

3"The  truth  is  thai  Japan  stands  for  religious  freedom.  This  is  a  principle 
embodied  in  her  Constitution,  and  her  practice  is  in  accordance  with  that  prin- 
ciple "  (Prime  Minister  Katsura  in  interview  published  in  the  Japati  Mail, 
May  27,  1904). 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  387 

The  Tong  Hak  movement  in  its  origin  was  a  protest  against  the 
force  of  missions  as  it  presented  itself  in  the  Roman  Catholics.  And 
yet  even  so,  Choi  was  profoundly  impressed  with  Christianity  as  the 
priests  taught  it,  and  found  it  hard  to  believe  that  it  was  not  true. 
The  Protestant  missions  had  not  yet  come  to  Korea,  and  did  not 
until  the  doors  were  opened  by  the  treaties  and  the  way  made  ready 
by  the  unlikely  disturbances  of  1884,  which  gave  a  Western  mission- 
ary doctor  an  opportunity  to  show  the  power  of  Western  medical 
science.  Even  before  the  Tong  Hak  revival  and  uprising  of  1894, 
the  Protestant  missionaries  had  gained  a  strong  foothold,  and  were 
already  convinced  that  they  had  before  them  one  of  the  greatest  of 
modern  missionary  opportunities.  And  the  Tong  Hak  rebellion,  in- 
stead of  supplanting  Christianity  with  the  religion  which  Choi  had 
devised  as  superior  to  it,  or  of  driving  out  of  the  country  any  for- 
eigners who  were  propagating  it,  both  gave  to  Christianity  a  power- 
ful impulse  and  opened  the  way  for  its  wider  dissemination.  In  the 
first  place  the  conditions  of  discontent  out  of  which  the  Tong  Hak 
movement  arose  were  favourable  to  a  hospitable  consideration  of  the 
message  of  Christianity.  Many  of  those,  who  followed  the  Tong 
Haks  with  some  measure  of  sympathy  were  still  doubtful  as  to  the 
legitimacy  of  their  claim  to  have  the  true  solution  to  life's  problem. 
Wherein  did  the  lives  of  the  Tong  Haks  show  that  life  had  yielded 
its  secret  of  contentment  to  them  ?  And  when  the  Tong  Hak  move- 
ment failed,  it  left  multitudes  more  ready  than  ever  to  listen  to  the 
missionaries  and  the  native  preachers.  They  had  "been  taught  the 
folly  of  worshipping  spirits  and  the  necessity  of  worshipping  God 
only,"  wrote  one  of  the  missionaries.  "  Their  idea  of  God  and  His 
worship  is  according  to  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Buddhists  com- 
bined. Abstinence,  ablutions  and  sacrifices  were  freely  practiced  to 
appease  the  deity.  '  Repairing  of  the  mind  '  or  repentance  was  ex- 
horted. The  people  are  now  asking  what  is  the  true  way  to  worship 
God  ?  They  are  conscious  we  know  more  about  Him  than  they  do. 
The  spirit  of  inquiry  is  abroad  everywhere.  The  Tong  Haks  feel 
they  failed  through  want  of  knowledge.  More  than  all,  trouble  and 
anxiety  are  leading  the  poor  Korean  to  stretch  out  his  hands  to 
God."  x 

Japan's  victory  in  the  war  made  a  profound  impression  upon  Korea. 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  6,  p.  208. 


388  Missions  and  Modern  History 

For  nine  centuries  Korea  had  been  a  vassal  state  of  China.  Its  Gov- 
ernment was  modelled  after  that  of  the  Ming  Dynasty  in  China.  Its 
literature  and  philosophy  were  Chinese  and  Confucian.  The  civil 
service  examination  system  in  the  Confucian  Classics  had  been  bor- 
rowed from  China,  and  was  set  up  in  all  its  pompous  inanity  in 
Korea.  The  country  had  ever  viewed  with  awe,  its  great  and  invin- 
cible patron  empire  and  its  institutions.  That  little  Japan  should 
conquer  this  mighty  antagonist  with  arts  and  weapons  which  she 
made  every  one  understand  she  borrowed  from  the  West,  gave  the 
Koreans  a  deep  respect  for  the  West,  and  a  vivid  interest  in  all  that 
pertained  to  it  or  came  from  it,  while  it  filled  them  with  disgust  at 
China  and  at  the  long  years  of  China's  imposition  of  herself  and  her 
inflated  claims  upon  them.  "The  revulsion  in  feeling"  (towards 
the  Chinese),  wrote  a  Korean  Christian,  from  Pyeng  Yang  after  the 
great  battle  there,  "  was  very  great.  Where  once  there  was  confi- 
dence and  respect,  now  there  is  nothing  but  loathing  and  hatred.  It 
is  so  to  this  day.  Not  that  Pyeng  Yang  loves  the  Japanese  more, 
but  she  hates  the  Chinese  with  greater  hatred."  1 

The  issue  of  the  war  shattered  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  Con- 
fucianism and  the  Chinese  gods.  The  civil  service  examinations  in 
the  Confucian  Classics  came  to  an  end,  and  it  was  no  part  of  the 
Japanese  policy  of  reform  to  revive  them.  The  examination  hall 
stands  useless  and  deserted  in  the  capital.  The  element  of  filial 
piety  remains,  but  the  Chinese  temples  are  abandoned.  Gods  that 
could  accomplish  nothing  in  the  hour  of  need  for  their  worshippers, 
which  had  taken  offerings  for  years  and  then  were  impotent  against 
the  armies  from  Japan,  deserved  no  further  care.  The  people  were 
ready  to  learn  of  some  new  religion.     The  old  religions  of  China,  the 

1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  9,  p.  353.  In  an  account  of  the  battle-field 
of  Pyeng  Yang,  the  Rev.  Graham  Lee,  who  visited  the  place  immediately  after 
the  battle  writes  :  "  Some  of  the  Korean  stories  about  the  battle  are  interesting, 
not  only  for  the  vivid  imagination  they  show,  but  also  because  they  bring  out 
most  clearly  the  deep  seated  hatred  of  anything  Japanese,  and  the  ingrained,  in- 
herited regard  for  anything  belonging  to  China.  One  of  these  will  suffice  to  il- 
lustrate both  these  traits  as  well  as  the  Korean  imagination.  It  is  told  by  the 
Koreans  that  General  Moh,  one  of  the  Chinese  generals,  became  disgusted  at  the 
way  his  soldiers  fought,  and  just  at  this  juncture,  being  wounded  in  the  ankle,  he 
became  very  angry.  Marching  to  his  quarters  he  donned  his  armour,  and  grasping 
a  cannon  in  his  hand,  he  sallied  forth  single  handed  against  the  Japanese  army, 
and  by  his  own  unaided  efforts  killed  two  hundred  Japanese  soldiers  "  {Korean 
Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  1,  p.  14). 


The  Tong  Hak  Insurrection  389 

new  compilation  of  Choi  Chei  Ou  were  alike  helpless.     The  religion 
of  the  West  was  evidently  the  religion  of  power. 

The  people  learned  also  of  the  enormous  political  power  of  the 
Western  Nations.     The  Tong  Hak  uprising  and  the  following  war 
ploughed  up  the  hardened  minds  of  the  Koreans,  and  a  host  of  new 
thoughts,  fresh  ideas,  startling  pieces  of  information  about  other  peo- 
ples and  other  lands  fell  into  the  soil.     Seeing  the  might  of  Japan 
and  hearing  that  Japan  had  only  learned  her  secret  from  the  West, 
the  people  became  anxious  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  these  nations,  just  as  in   1861,  when  the  English  and 
French  armies  took  Peking,  and  the  rumour  came  to  Seoul  that  they 
proposed  to  enter  Korea  also,  multitudes  of  the  people  flocked  to  the 
Catholics  for  books,  crucifixes  or  some  sign  by  which  they  might 
claim  to  be  connected  with  the  French  priests  in  case  the  European 
armies  really  came.     In  their  own  troubles,  their  controversies  over 
debts  and  taxes,  the  people  felt  that  the  influence  of  a  Westerner 
would  be  potent  and  helpful.     In  every  way  the  war  and  its  political 
influence  set  men  thinking  and  disposed  them  favourably  to  foreign- 
ers and  to  Christianity.     "  We  note,"  wrote  a  missionary,  the  sum- 
mer after  the  war,  "  the  new  life  the  changes  of  the  past  twelve 
months  have  wrought  among  the  people.     Hope  has  sprung  up  even 
in  the   Korean's   heart.     A   year   and   a  half  ago  everything  was 
dead.     .     .     .     Now  signs  of  life  are  seen  on  every  side.     Business 
is  increasing,  schools  are  well  patronized,  while  the  services  on  the 
Sabbath  held  by  the  Christian  propaganda  in  Korea  were  never  so 
well  attended.     Where  men  were  afraid  to  be  seen  entering  a  place 
of  worship,  they  now  enter  openly  and  invite  their  friends.     .     .     . 
Christianity  is  the  subject  of  conversation  in  nearly  every  grade  of 
society."  1 

The  great  mass  of  the  people  had  access  to  nothing  Western  except 
the  Western  religion.  Fortunately  that  had  gone  in  in  advance  of 
material  civilization,  and  so  to  the  Western  religion  they  turned  in 
their  hopelessness  and  misery.  They  felt  before  the  war,  and  the  ut- 
ter collapse  of  the  Government  and  of  their  own  institutions  in  the 
war  confirmed  the  feeling,  that  they  had  reached  the  bottom  of 
wretchedness.  Justice  was  a  travesty.  There  were  no  real  courts, 
and  magistrates  were  simply  extortioners.  Poverty  was  added  to  op- 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  II,  No.  7,  p.  268. 


39°  Missions  and  Modern  History 

pression,  and  feeling  that  nothing  could  bring  them  to  a  worse  con- 
dition, many  were  ready  to  welcome  Christianity  as  something 
which  might  have  good  in  it.  Tong  Hak  had  spoken  to  them  with 
hazy,  magical  formulae.  Christianity  spoke  out  with  clear  distinct- 
ness, definite,  vital.  Tong  Hak  had  accustomed  them  to  religious 
organization,  but  there  was  no  mutual  confidence  in  it.  The  Chris- 
tian churches  showed  them  bodies  of  men  and  women  actually  bound 
together  by  love  and  confidence.  Choi  sought  to  supplant  the  West- 
ern religion.     In  reality  he  prepared  the  way  for  it. 

Of  course  a  situation  such  as  arose  from  these  conditions  had  its 
perils.  Evil  men  were  sure  to  take  advantage  of  the  prestige  of 
Christianity  and  of  the  missionary  to  seek  defence  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Church.  Dr.  Underwood  discovered  that  three  men  in 
the  province  of  Whang  Hai  had  obtained  from  certain  magistrates, 
official  documents  appointing  them  Christian  leaders,  and  ordering 
all  to  whom  their  papers  should  be  presented,  to  obey  them,  having 
secured  these  documents  on  the  ground  that  Dr.  Underwood  had 
authorized  it,  and  that  without  some  civil  authority  it  was  impossible 
to  make  the  Christians  do  right.  Armed  with  these  papers,  secured 
either  by  intimidation  or  bribery,  these  men  went  through  that  sec- 
tion of  the  province,  "extorting  money,  ordering  arrests,  command- 
ing magistrates  to  decide  cases  in  their  favour,  and  dressed  in  foreign 
clothes,  with  rifles  and  swords,  they  intimidated  the  people  gener- 
ally." They  did  this  under  the  pretence  of  great  reverence  for 
Christianity,  holding  meetings  as  they  went,  and  in  the  meetings 
placing  the  Bible  and  some  Christian  books  on  a  table,  and  spreading 
a  white  cloth  over  them.  In  consequence  of  some  such  acts  Chris- 
tianity suffered  and  proclamations  were  posted  by  some  governors 
warning  people  against  confusing  such  Christians  with  the  true  fol- 
lowers of  the  Western  religion,  and  warning  officials  not  to  be  de- 
terred from  prosecuting  such  men  even  though  they  sought  escape 
under  the  cover  of  Christianity.  "  There  may  be  some  differences," 
said  the  Governor  of  Kyong  Keui,  "between  the  Western  teaching 
and  our  teaching,  yet  in  their  regard  for  goodness  and  their  hate  for 
evil  they  are  one  and  the  same.  Therefore,  those  who  are  sincere 
religionists  are  not  given  to  deeds  of  violence,  while  the  other  kind 
only  overturn  law  and  order.  The  foreign  teachers  themselves  will 
regard  with  pleasure  the  detention  and  punishment  of  all  such,  and 


The  Tong  Hak   Insurrection  391 

it  will  in  no  wise  effect  our  relations  with  foreign  countries. ' ' l 
When  Choi's  religion  was  in  the  ascendant,  evil  men  did  evil  under 
the  pretence  of  being  its  followers.  Inconsistency  pays  its  tribute  to 
religion  even  at  home  by  hiding  under  it.  In  every  land  where  mis- 
sions meet  with  success,  this  evil  confronts  them  as  the  price  of  their 
success. 

The  peculiar  position  of  the  missionaries  themselves  involved  them 
in  situations  of  delicacy  during  these  exciting  years.  In  Seoul  they 
were  the  most  experienced  foreigners  in  the  country.  They  knew  the 
language  perfectly.  Some  of  them  had  come  to  know  the  King  per- 
sonally, and  he  knew  he  could  trust  them.  In  consequence,  when 
the  Queen  was  murdered  by  the  Japanese,  and  the  King  already 
driven  to  distraction  by  the  events  of  his  country's  history  during  the 
preceding  years,  hardly  knew  in  which  way  to  turn,  he  threw  himself 
upon  the  missionaries,  sought  their  presence  and  the  sense  of  protec- 
tion it  brought  to  him,  and  relied  upon  one  of  them  as  his  interpre- 
ter. All  this  gave  certain  classes  great  offence.  The  Japanese  pa- 
pers, especially  some  of  the  English  papers  published  in  Japan,  were 
full  of  attacks  upon  the  missionaries,  and  the  State  Department  at 
Washington  felt  called  upon  to  warn  the  missionaries  through  the 
legation  at  Seoul  to  keep  aloof  from  politics.  This,  it  is  needless  to 
say,  is  just  what  the  missionaries  had  ever  tried  to  do,  although  it 
was  impossible  for  them  to  conceal  their  own  opinions  as  to  what  was 
best  for  Korea  in  their  own  publications,  or  in  their  conversations 
with  Korean  officials.  That  the  missionaries  exceeded  the  bounds  of 
propriety  in  this,  has  never  been  proven.  That  their  position  at  such 
times  was  one  of  great  delicacy,  is  obvious.  But  there  are  certain  in- 
evitable relations  between  righteousness  preached  and  righteousness 
practiced  which  will  often  obliterate  the  line  between  religion  and 
politics  by  merging  them  ;  and  while  the  last  thing  the  missionary  has 
any  right  to  do  is  to  dabble  in  politics,  he  could  not  call  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  Korean  Queen  by  any  other  word  than  murder,  even 
when  it  was  conceived  and  instigated  by  a  Japanese  minister.  And 
even  though  he  sympathized  with  Japan's  purpose  for  Korea,  and 
desired  to  see  her  retain  her  control  of  the  Government,  he  could  not 
refuse  personal  sympathy  and  the  support  of  his  presence  to  a  ruler 
who  cheerfully  permitted  him  to  preach  the  gospel  to  his  people, 
1  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  V,  No.  5,  p.  197. 


392  Missions  and  Modern  History 

when  that  ruler  called  for  it  and  needed  the  help  and  reassurance  of 
disinterested  friendship.  The  conditions  in  Seoul  in  the  years  1895-6 
showed  very  clearly  how  easy  it  would  be  for  missionaries  to  err  by 
political  meddling,  and  also  how  careful  missionaries  are  to  avoid 
error  of  this  kind.  The  position  won  and  held  both  in  Seoul  and 
throughout  the  country  by  the  missionaries  is  sufficient  proof  of  their 
general  wisdom  and  care  in  this  regard.  They  will  have  their  new 
problems  now  in  view  of  the  new  changes  due  to  the  war  between 
Russia  and  Japan. 

And  the  position  alike  of  the  missionaries  and  of  Christianity  in 
Korea  has  been  one  of  singular  interest.  The  missionary  instead  of 
being  called  "foreign  devil,"  is  addressed  respectfully  by  a  word 
meaning  "  shepherd,"  but  which  is  also  an  honourable  title  of  re- 
spect. And  Christianity  has  won  the  hearts  and  transformed  the 
homes  of  thousands  of  the  people  of  the  land.  Of  course  there  are 
frequent  mutterings  of  opposition,  and  signs  of  peril,  but  the  move- 
ment sweeps  steadily  on.  It  is  aiming  at  a  reformation  more  compre- 
hensive than  that  which  the  Tong  Haks  sought  to  secure.  It  repudi- 
ates the  weapons  of  material  strife,  to  which  they  felt  compelled  at 
last  to  resort.  All  that  Choi  Chei  Ou  sought  to  accomplish  it  will 
effect,  and  far  more  that  never  entered  the  mind  of  that  humble  vil- 
lager, as  he  dreamed  his  dreams,  and  groped  for  light  with  the  hope- 
lessness of  a  child  crying  for  it  in  the  night.  There  has  not  been  in 
modern  times  a  better  opportunity  for  Christianity  to  create  a  nation, 
or  a  better  place,  accordingly,  for  a  Christian  man  hungry  for  great 
influence  for  good  to  bury  his  life,  as  men  say, — to  make  it  nobly 
fruitful,  we  will  say,  unto  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan 


VIII 
THE  TRANSFORMATION  OF  JAPAN 


Wi 


u  "^[  "^J"  X^ILST  English  travellers  are  almost  overwhelming  the 
British  public  with  information  concerning  the  most  re- 
mote, the  most  savage  and  the  least  interesting  regions 
of  the  globe,  there  is  an  extensive,  populous  and  highly,  though 
singularly,  civilized  empire,  which  remains  as  much  a  terra  incognita 
now  as  it  was  an  hundred  years  ago."  1  This  is  the  opening  sentence 
of  a  book  on  Japan,  published  only  two  generations  ago.  Its  archaic 
sound  in  our  ears  is  evidence  of  the  greatness  and  rapidity  of  the 
change  that  has  passed  over  Japan  within  the  memory  of  many  people 
now  living.  A  feudal  society  under  an  absolute  sovereign  has  passed 
into  a  representative  government  under  a  constitutional  emperor  and 
a  nation  which  for  more  than  two  centuries  had  excluded  all  for- 
eigners but  Chinese  and  Dutch,  and  was  living  its  own  quiet  and 
antique  life,  has  opened  its  territory  to  free  foreign  residence,  re- 
ceived full  international  recognition2  and  alone  of  all  non-Christian' 

1  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Japanese,  p,  i. 

2  The  best  evidence  of  this  is  the  treaties  by  which  Japan  is  recognized  as  an 
equal  among  the  nations.  Further  striking  evidence  is  the  agreement  with  Great 
Britain  constituting  such  an  alliance  as  no  Western  nation  has  heretofore  made 
with  an  Asiatic  state  : 

"  The  Governments  of  Japan  and  Great  Britain,  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  to 
maintain  the  status  quo  and  general  peace  in  the  extreme  East  being  moreover 
specially  interested  in  maintaining  the  independence  and  territorial  integrity  of 
the  Empire  of  China  and  the  Empire  of  Korea,  and  in  securing  equal  oppor- 
tunities in  those  countries  for  the  commerce  and  industry  of  all  nations,  hereby 
agree  as  follows : 

"Art.  I.  The  High  Contracting  Parties,  having  mutually  recognized  the  inde- 
pendence of  China  and  of  Korea,  declare  themselves  to  be  entirely  uninfluenced 
by  any  aggressive  tendencies  in  either  country.  Having  in  view,  however,  their 
special  interests,  of  which  those  of  Great  Britain  relate  principally  to  China, 
while  Japan,  in  addition  to  the  interests  which  she  possesses  in  China,  is  inter- 
ested in  a  peculiar  degree,  politically  as  well  as  commercially  and  industrially,  in 
Korea,  the  High  Contracting  Parties  recognize  that  it  will  be  admissible  for 
either  of  them  to  take  such  measures  as  may  be  indispensable  in  order  to  safe- 
guard those  interests,  if  threatened  either  by  the  aggressive  action  of  any  other 
power  or  by  disturbances  arising  in  China  or  Korea  and  necessitating  the  inter- 

395 


39^  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

nations  not  only  adopted  the  appearance  of  Western  civilization,  but 
set  about  the  vital  incorporation  of  its  principles  in  the  national 
character. 

It  is  important  to  get  this  great  movement,  the  greatest  racial  or 
national  movement  of  modern  times,  in  its  right  historic  setting. 
Authentic  Japanese  history  begins  about  the  fifth  century  and  reveals 
an  adaptive  people,  receiving  intelligence  and  inventions  and  political 
principles  from  neighbouring  lands.  The  later  centuries  show  an 
original  development  of  these  acquisitions  in  harmony  with  the 
genius  of  the  people.  Outstanding  in  this  development  is  the  growth 
of  Japanese  feudalism  and  the  development  under  it  of  a  distinct 
national  spirit,  quite  original.  The  feudal  system  embraced  all  the 
institutions  of  the  land.  It  issued  in  the  device  of  an  interesting 
division  of  authority  between  the  Mikado,  the  real  sovereign,  the 
alleged  descendant  of  heaven,  who,  unseen  by  the  people  and  often 
neglected  by  them,  was  still  regarded  with  worshipful  adoration,  and 
the  Shogun.  The  Shogun  was  the  actual  ruler,  who  acknowledged 
the  Mikado  as  his  liege  lord,  was  nominally  appointed  by  him,  and 
carried  on  the  administration  of  the  state  in  the  Mikado's  name. 

vention  of  either  of  the  High  Contracting  Parties  for  the  protection  of  the 
lives  and  property  of  its  subjects. 

"  Art.  II.  If  either  Japan  or  Great  Britain,  in  the  defence  of  their  respective 
interests  as  above  described,  should  become  involved  in  war  with  another  power, 
the  other  High  Contracting  Party  will  maintain  a  strict  neutrality  and  use  its 
efforts  to  prevent  other  powers  from  joining  in  hostilities  against  its  ally. 

"  Art.  III.  If  in  the  above  event  any  other  Power  or  Powers  should  join  in 
hostilities  against  that  ally,  the  other  High  Contracting  Party  will  come  to  its 
assistance  and  will  conduct  the  war  in  common  and  make  peace  in  mutual 
agreement  with  it. 

"  Art.  IV.  The  High  Contracting  Parties  agree  that  neither  of  them  will, 
without  consulting  the  other,  enter  into  separate  arrangements  with  another  power 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  interests  above  described. 

"  Art.  V.  Whenever,  in  the  opinion  of  either  Japan  or  Great  Britain  the 
above-mentioned  interests  are  in  jeopardy,  the  two  Governments  will  communi- 
cate with  one  another  fully  and  frankly. 

"  Art.  VI.  The  present  agreement  shall  come  into  effect  immediately  after  the 
date  of  its  signature  and  remain  in  force  for  five  years  from  that  date.  In  case 
neither  of  the  High  Contracting  Parties  should  have  notified  twelve  months  be- 
fore the  expiration  of  the  said  five  years  the  intention  of  terminating  it,  it  shall 
remain  binding  until  the  expiration  of  one  year  from  the  clay  on  which  either  of 
the  High  Contracting  Parties  shall  have  denounced  it,  but  if  when  the  date 
fixed  for  its  expiration  arrives  either  ally  is  actually  engaged  in  war  the  alliance 
shall  ipso  facto  continue  until  peace  is  concluded. 

"  In  faith  whereof  the  undersigned,  duly  authorized  by  their  respective  Gov- 
ernments, have  signed  this  agreement,  and  have  affixed  thereto  their  seals. 

"Done  in  duplicate  in  London  the  30th  January,  1902." 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  397 

In  the  natural  outworking  of  the  nation's  life  there  came  at  the 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  great  crisis,  introduced  from  with- 
out. Through  the  devotion,  tact,  heroism,  ability  and  success  of  the 
missionaries  and  in  the  conditions  then  prevailing,  there  seemed  a 
possibility  of  the  conversion  of  the  entire  nation  to  the  Christian 
faith  as  taught  by  the  Catholic  missionaries.  Jealousies,  suspicions, 
mistakes  and  wrong  deeds,  both  of  the  Catholic  missionaries  and  of 
Dutch  and  English  Protestant  traders  brought  their  natural  fruitage, 
however,  arousing  the  fears  of  Japanese  patriotism  and  the  great  mis- 
sion ended  in  disaster.  The  battle  of  Sekigahara,  in  1598,  "  decided 
the  condition  of  Japan  for  over  two  centuries,  the  settlement  of  the 
Tokugawa  family  in  hereditary  succession  to  the  Shogunate,  the  fate 
of  Christianity,  the  isolation  of  Japan  from  the  world,  the  fixing  into 
permanency  of  the  dual  system  of  feudalism,  the  glory  and  greatness 
of  Yeddo  (Tokyo)  as  the  Shogun's  capital "  ;  and  the  great  persecu- 
tion which  followed  resulted  in  the  death  of  "  over  a  thousand  persons, 
European  and  Japanese,  connected  with  the  four  orders — Jesuit, 
Franciscan,  Dominican  and  Augustinian — together  with  200,000  of 
the  laity,"  as  the  Roman  Catholic  historians  estimate.1  Christianity 
was  extirpated  and  the  edict  of  exclusion  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  1614  closed  Japan  to  Christian  influence  and  indeed  to  all  influence 
from  the  West. 

It  is  all  a  familiar  story  now — how  Perry  opened  the  country  in 
1 85  3-1 85 4,  how  Townsend  Harris  and  Lord  Elgin  negotiated  the 
first  generous  treaties  in  1858,  how  the  revolution  of  1868  overthrew 
the  Shogun  and  feudalism,  brought  the  Emperor  out  of  his  retirement 
to  resume  actual  sovereignty  and  to  introduce  the  European  system 
of  Government  through  departments  of  state  with  responsible  min- 
isters in  charge ;  how  immediately  the  controlling  spirit  of  the  nation 
altered,  and  the  Government  was  remodelled  from  top  to  bottom. 
The  army,  navy  and  civil  service  were  reconstructed,  a  postal  system 
introduced,  educational  departments  established,  railroads  and  all 
the  machinery  of  civilization  quickly  developed  ;  the  eta  or  pariahs 
of  Japan  were  admitted  to  citizenship  ;  the  Samurai  deprived  of  their 
privileges  ;  the  calendar  of  the  Christian  world  was  adopted  and  Sun- 
day established  as  a  day  of  rest.  In  1871-73,  an  embassy,  headed 
by  Iwakura,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  went  abroad  to  study 
1  Cary,  Japan  audits  Regeneration,  p.  55. 


398  Missions  and   Modern  History 

Western  institutions  and  returned  to  influence  yet  more  positively 
the  progressive  course  of  the  nation.1  Some  of  the  strongest  spirits, 
the  great  Saigo  among  them,  were  unable  to  adjust  themselves  to  the 
rapid  change,  and  resisted  in  the  Satsuma  rebellion.  It  was  a 
powerful  but  futile  protest  on  the  part  of  the  old  order.  The  move- 
ment swept  steadily  forward.  In  1875,  a  deliberative  assembly  was 
formed.  In  1877,  provincial  representative  assemblies  were  estab- 
lished. In  1885  the  Government  was  reorganized  so  as  to  provide 
for  a  Cabinet  on  European  models.  Four  years  later,  a  written  con- 
stitution was  granted  by  the  Emperor,  and  in  1890,  the  first  Parlia- 
ment assembled.  This  is  the  briefest  outline  of  the  revolutionary 
changes  which  have  been  effected  with  but  the  slightest  opposition. 

To  understand,  however,  the  magnitude  of  the  transformation 
which  has  been  wrought,  something  must  be  said  in  greater  detail. 
In  thirty  years  we  have  seen  the  entire  history  of  a  nation  ripped 
asunder  and  begun  anew.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  trace  natural 
explanations  and  to  point  out  the  preparatory  forces  but  the  great- 
ness and  significance  of  the  transformation  could  not  be  lessened 
thereby.  What  we  have  seen  has  been  the  regeneration  of  a  state. 
' '  Her  leap  from  feudalism  to  modernity  is  without  parallel.  .  .  . 
In  a  quarter  of  a  century,  she  has  sprung  from  an  Oriental  despotism, 
hating  foreigners  above  all  else  and  differing  from  other  oriental 
despotisms  by  the  fact  that  the  ruling  influence  among  her  people 
was  one  of  the  strictest,  loftiest  and  most  punctilious  codes  of  honour 
that  man  has  ever  devised,"  this  is  Mr.  Henry  Norman's  view,  "to 
a  nation  whose  army  and  navy  may  meet  those  of  contemporary 
Europe  on  equal  terms ;  whose  laws  will  bear  comparison  with  any 
in  existence  ;  whose  manufactures  are  driving  Western  producers 
from  the  field ;  whose  art-work  has  created  a  new  standard  of  taste 
abroad,  whose  education  has  prepared  a  band  of  experts  second  to 
none  .  .  .  whose  colonizing  strength  suggests  more  than  one 
alteration  to  the  map  of  Asia ;  whose  official  statistics  for  truthfulness 
and  elaboration  leave  those  of  many  Western  countries  far  behind 
whose  people  are  simply  thirsting  for  fresh  fields  to  conquer 
and  scorn  the  idea  of  failure."  2  This  enthusiasm  is  rather  ruddy, 
but  the  facts  are  wonderful. 

1  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  767. 
*  Norman,  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  p.  376. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan 


399 


In  her  politics  the  transformation  of  Japan  has  embraced  these  two 
great  movements,  (i)  the  decay  of  feudalism  and  the  establishment 
in  its  stead  of  constitutional  Government  and  (2)  the  development  of 
party  Government  under  the  constitution.  The  transfer  of  the  ex- 
clusive privileges  of  feudalism  to  the  throne  or  their  distribution 
among  the  people  has  been  practically  accomplished.  "  From  the 
social  point  of  view,"  says  Leroy  Beaulieu,  "we  shall  very  soon 
find  that  far  less  exclusiveness  exists  in  this  country  where  feudalism 
was  in  full  force  only  as  recently  as  thirty  years  ago,  than  we  should 
in  many  countries  in  Europe  where  its  abolition  dates  back  in  some 
instances  several  centuries."  '  The  class  spirit,  however,  has  not 
died  and  the  political  struggle  under  the  constitution  has  been  to  re- 
place the  Government  of  the  few  great  clansmen  who  have  led  hith- 
erto by  a  Government  through  political  parties  organized  on  non- 
feudal  sympathies.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  great  clan  leaders 
like  Marquis  Ito  have  been  in  full  sympathy  with  this  desire.  The 
difficulty  lies  in  the  establishment  of  two  strong,  clearly  separated 
parties.     Thus  far  there  have  been  eleven  cabinets : 


Organized. 

Ito  Cabinet Dec.  1885 

Kuroda  Cabinet Apr.  1888 

Yamagata  Cabinet Dec.  1889 

Matsukata  Cabinet Mch.  1891 

Ito  Cabinet Aug.  1892 

Matsukata  Cabinet Sept.  1896 

Ito  Cabinet Jan.  1898 

Okuma-Itagaki  Cabinet  .    .    .  June  1898 

Yamagata  Cabinet Nov.  1S98 

Ito  Cabinet Oct.  1900 

Katsura  Cabinet June.  1901 


Resigned.  Duration. 

March  1888  2  years,  3  months. 

Oct.       1889  *  year,    7       " 

Apr.      1891  1     "       5       " 

July       1892  1     "       3       « 

Aug.     1896  4  years,  1  month. 

Dec.     1897  *  year,  4  months. 

June     1898  o     "       5       " 

Oct.      1898  o     "       4       " 

Sept.     1900  1     "     10       " 

May     1901  o     "       7       " 


Of  these  only  three  have  professed  to  be  party  cabinets  and  even 
these  have  been  composite,  while  the  two  departments  of  Navy  and 
War  were  long  held  by  Saigo  and  Oyama,  and  are  kept  carefully 
separate  from  party  influence.2  It  is  sufficient  here  to  point  out  that 
the  same  men  who  brought  Japan  from  feudalism  to  cabinet  Govern- 
ment, where  the  cabinet  was  a  clan  Government  under  the  Emperor, 
are  eager  to  lead  the  Government  on  to  a  full  development  of  repre- 


1  The  Awakening  of  the  East,  p.  155. 

*  Clement,  A  Handbook  of  Modern  Japan,  pp.  337^ 


400  Missions  and  Modern  History 

sentative  institutions  and  the  consequently  necessary  establishment  of 
well  defined  political  parties.1 

Side  by  side  with  these  administrative  changes,  partly  accounting 
for  them,  partly  produced  by  them,  there  have  been  great  changes  in 
the  deeper  life  and  thought  of  the  people.  The  medieval  attitude  of 
mind  has  passed  away,  a  great  "  relaxation  of  social  and  civic  re- 
straint"  has  taken  place,  together  with  a  great  "extension  of  the 
principle  of  personal  liberty.  ...  In  every  phase  of  social  life, 
there  has  been  a  loosening  of  the  bonds  of  the  former  generation." 
Accompanying  this,  the  principle  of  the  change  that  has  taken  place 
has  been  "  the  substitution  of  principle  in  the  ordering  of  national 
life  for  local  usage  or  individual  caprice.  The  administrative,  legis- 
lative, judicial  functions  of  the  Empire  are  henceforth  to  be  conducted 
in  accordance  with  general  principles,  embodied  in  the  constitution 
and  in  the  new  codes.  The  old  courts  where  cases  were  settled,  ac- 
cording to  custom  or  expediency  or  by  compromise,  have  passed 
away  and  judgments  are  now  rendered  in  the  name  of  justice  and 
equity.  Local  interest,  or  prejudice  or  usage  must  yield  to  law,  and 
the  political  life  of  the  nation  take  shape  around  rules  which  are  to 
be  applied  to  all  and  govern  all  alike.  The  importance  of  this  change 
cannot  be  overestimated."  3  The  idea  of  rights  and  duties  has  received 
a  new  impulse.  The  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  of  principle  as 
an  individual  obligation,  as  a  limitation  of  arbitrary  authority  is 
coming  to  birth.  "  There  is  not  a  child  in  Japan,"  says  Dr.  D.  C. 
Greene,  emphatically,  "  but  which  lives  a  materially  different  life 
from  that  of  the  children  of  thirty  years  ago.  The  whole  atmosphere 
which  he  breathes  is  permeated  by  the  new  thought  of  the  value  of 
the  individual.  He  is  bound  to  grow  up  with  a  ripe  sense  of  per- 
sonality."3 

This  change  that  has  taken  place  has  included  naturally  an 
"awakening  of  the  sleeping  energies  of  the  nation."     From  1884  to 

1  See  Articles  by  C.  Nakamura  in  the  Japan  Evangelist,  November,  1896,  on 
"Matsukata";  December,  1896,  on  "Okuma";  January,  1897,  on  "Ito"; 
March,  1898.  on  "  Inouye  "  ;  LeRoy  Beaulieu,  The  Awakening  of  the  East,  Part 
II,  Ch.  VIII;  Curzon,  Problems  of  the  Far  East,  p.  30;  Norman,  Peoples  and 
Politics  of  the  Far  East,  p.  391 ;  The  Far  East,  March  20,  1896,  pp.  56" ;  June 
20,  1898,  pp.  iff;  July  20,  1898,  p.  580;  Speech  of  Marquis  Ito,  Japan-American 
Commercial  Journal,  January,  1900,  pp.  34-40. 

a  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  226. 

3  Greene,  The  Outlook  for  Christianity  in  Japan,  p.  13. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  401 

1898  the  population  increased  sixteen  per  cent.  During  a  period  of 
120  years  under  the  Tokugawa  Shoguns,  the  population  of  the  coun- 
try increased  less  than  during  any  two  years  since  1886.  The 
population  of  Osaka  increased  between  1886  and  1898,  85.5  per 
cent.,  and  of  Yokohama  62.9.  The  national  revenue  rose  from  103,- 
231,000  yen  derived  from  taxation  in  1891,  to  236,715,000  yen  in 
1900.  In  1884,  the  number  of  manufacturing  companies  recorded 
was  379  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  yen  5,048,299.  In  1898,  there 
were  2,164  companies  with  an  aggregate  of  yen  122,066,053.  In  the 
same  interval,  the  number  of  commercial  companies  increased  from 
654  with  a  capital  of  yen  8,987,560  to  4,718  with  a  capital  of  yen 
300,039,664.  Transportation  companies  increased  from  204,  with  a 
capital  of  yen  6,891,534,  to  536,  with  a  capital  of  yen  197,233,421. 
The  sum  total  of  the  foreign  trade  for  1884  was  yen  66,141,044.  In 
1899,  it  had  become  yen  472,828,751."  l  In  1872  there  were  only 
eighteen  miles  of  railway  in  all  Japan.  In  1899  there  were  3,635.  If 
the  comparison  were  made  with  the  beginning  of  the  new  era  rather 
than  the  middle  of  it,  the  change  would  be  yet  more  wonderful.  In 
the  eight  years,  preceding  October  31,  1898,  the  number  of  cotton 
mills  increased  from  thirty  to  sixty-one ;  the  number  of  spindles  from 
227,895  to  1,223,661;  of  workmen  from  4,089  to  13,447,  and  of 
workwomen  from  10,330  to  43, 367. 2  The  prospective  strength  of 
the  Japanese  Army  and  Navy,  evidence  which  weighs  with  the  West 
as  much  as  trade  balances  and  cotton  spindles,  when  the  present  pro- 
gram is  completed  in  1905  for  the  Navy  as  it  was  in  1903  for  the 
Army,  will  include  a  force  of  150,000  men  on  a  peace  footing,  with 
a  possibility  of  throwing  500,000  men  into  the  field  in  war,  and  in  the 
Navy  sixty-seven  men-of-war  of  258,000  tons,  eleven  torpedo  boat 
destroyers,  and  115  torpedo  boats,  far  more  than  double  the  strength 
of  the  Navy  before  the  China  war.  Thirty  years  ago,  the  nation  had 
no  Navy  and  no  Army  possessed  of  Western  equipment.3  "In  a 
recent  lecture  before  the  Japan  Society  in  London,  Dr.  Edgar  pointed 
out  that  it  was  only  about  forty  years  ago  that  the  Government  with- 
drew the  order   prohibiting  the  building  of  seagoing  vessels  which 

1  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  83. 

2  Beaulieu,  The  Awakening  of  the  East,  p.  122;  Ecumenical  Conference  lie- 
port,  Vol.  I,  pp.  525C;  Gordon,  An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,  Ch.  XIX ; 
Peery,  The  Gist  of  Japan,  Ch.  V. 

3  The  Ear  East,  January  20,  1897,  pp.  2ff. 


4-02  Missions  and  Modern  History 

measured  more  than  500  koku  or  seventy-six  tons  and  had  more  than 
one  mast."1  In  1870  there  were  but  thirty-five  steam  vessels.  In 
1900  there  were   1,221.     Sailing  vessels  increased  from  eleven  to 

3>322-2 

And  the  intellectual  energies  of  the  nation  have  awakened  also. 
The  program  of  transformation  embraced  the  design  of  popular 
education  for  every  man  and  boy.  Instead  of  the  utter  absence  of 
all  schools  and  educational  systems  thirty  years  ago,  there  are  now s 
two  Universities  with  3,268  students,  303  special  and  technical 
schools  with  44,698  students  and  26,997  elementary  schools  with 
4,302,623  students,  and  the  students  include,  not  the  descendants  of 
the  old  class  of  gentry  only,  but  even  in  the  university,  itself,  an 
almost  equal  number  of  the  heimin  or  common  people.4  The  nation 
has  become  a  nation  of  readers.  In  1884  there  were  9,893  books 
published;  in  1898,  20,814,  while  the  circulation  of  magazines,  and 
newspapers  increased  in  the  same  period  from  61,162,611  10464,- 
458,141.  The  Government  has  earnestly  striven  to  accomplish  the 
purpose  of  the  Imperial  Educational  Rescript  of  1872,  which  de- 
clared, "It  is  intended  that  henceforth  education  shall  be  so  diffused 
that  there  may  not  be  a  village  with  an  ignorant  family,  nor  a  family 
with  an  ignorant  member." 

These  changes  in  Japan  began  with  a  change  in  Japan's  external 
relation  to  the  world  and  they  have  issued  in  a  further  change  of 
these  relations.  The  isolated  island  which  for  two  centuries  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  foreigners  is  now  the  only  Asiatic  nation  on 
an  equality  with  foreign  states.  At  first  the  treaties  retained  for 
Western  people  the  rights  of  extra-territoriality.  This  retention  was 
galling  to  Japan,  but  she  set  about  removing  the  grounds  of  objec- 
tion to  the  withdrawal  of  the  humiliation,  and  in  1898  the  new 
treaties  conceded  to  Japan  all  the  privileges  of  civilized  states  and 
foreigners  resident  in  Japan  became  amenable  to  Japanese  Govern- 
ment and  jurisdiction.  The  delay  in  surrendering  the  right  of  extra- 
territoriality while  irritating  to  Japan  and  productive  of  much  anti- 

1  New  York  Sun,  June  5,  1895,  Editorial  "  Japan  and  Her  Navy." 

2  New  York  Sun,  November  27,  1901. 

3  Statistics  of  1S99-1900. 

1  Sec  Art.  "  The  Progress  of  Education  in  Japan,"  The  Far  East,  November 
20,  1896,  pp.  iff;  Stateman's  )'ear  Book,  1902,  p.  829;  Lewis,  The  Educational 
Conquest  of  the  Far  East,  Chs.  I-X. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  403 

foreign  feeling,  was  undoubtedly  beneficial,  as  it  saved  Japan  from 
many  complications  and  acted  as  a  powerful  spur  to  the  pride  and 
energy  of  the  people,  and  issued  at  last  in  the  codes  under  which 
Westerners  felt  that  they  could  trust  themselves.1  The  China  War 
had  undoubtedly  a  great  deal  to  do  with  hastening  the  popular 
recognition  of  Japan's  equality  in  the  West,  and  it  powerfully  affected 
the  spirit  of  the  nation.  It  almost  created  a  new  loyalty  for  the 
Emperor  at  a  time  when  the  decay  of  the  old  feudal  loyalty  en- 
dangered all  devotion.  It  gave  the  nation  a  steadier  confidence  and 
a  surer  conviction  of  the  superiority  of  the  new  civilization  which  it 
had  adopted.  And  it  increased  the  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
nations  round  about,  doomed,  as  the  Japanese  saw,  to  destruction 
unless  they  turned  and  followed  in  the  way  chosen  by  Japan.2  All 
this  has  been  but  more  fully  illustrated  and  reinforced  in  the  war 
with  Russia. 

And  this  new  position  of  Japan  in  the  world  movement  is  not 
political  only.  Japan  is  now  in  the  great  current  which  carries  all 
peoples  along  together,  and  is  peculiarly  sensitive  to  all  the  tend- 
encies of  this  current,  more  so  than  any  other  nation.  This  is 
perhaps  owing  in  part  to  her  long  seclusion,  but  there  are  other  rea- 
sons to  be  assigned  for  this  very  abnormal  degree  of  sensitiveness. 
The  most  important  of  these  lies  in  the  smallness  of  the  educated 
class  and  the  gulf  which  separates  it  from  the  mass  of  the  people.3 
It  may  be  said  that  this  small  class  cannot  be  called  Japan,  but  it  is 
the  Japan  which  the  world  knows  and  it  is  the  part  of  the  country 
also  which  dominates  the  rest  and  is  drawing  the  rest  after  it.  The 
land  which  forty  years  ago  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  world 
movements  is  to-day  the  land  most  eagerly  interested  in  them  and 
most  sensitive  to  them.  Can  the  leadership  of  Northeastern  Asia  be 
better  intrusted  to  her  or  to  the  Power  against  which  she  has  been 
contending,  the  Power  least  sensitive  of  all  the  great  Powers  to  the 
movements  of  the  world's  life  ? 

Changes  as  deep  and  far  reaching  as  these  have  inevitably  affected 
the  position  of  the  national  religions.  When  the  transformation 
began  Shintoism  and  Buddhism  were  practically  the  established  re- 

'See  Art.  "The  Twelfth  Diet  of  Japan,"  The  Independent,  August  18,  1898. 

2  The  Far  East,  June  20,  1896,  pp.  6-9. 

3  Greene,  The  Outlook  for  Christianity  in  Japan,  p.  6;    Tokyo  Conference  Re- 
port, p.  99. 


404  Missions  and  Modern  History 

ligions  of  the  land.  The  change  which  has  passed  over  the  country 
has  resulted  in  the  official  demise  of  Shintoism  as  a  religion.  When 
the  new  era  began  Shinto  was  in  revival  as  the  patriotic  cult  and 
again  and  again  efforts  have  been  made  to  remodel  it  so  as  to  make 
it  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  new  life.  Dr.  Inouye  Tetsujiro  and 
others  have  vainly  striven  to  adapt  it  in  some  way  to  withstand  the 
onslaught  of  the  Christian  conceptions.  All  has  been  in  vain  and 
"  acceding  to  the  request  of  Shinto  leaders,  the  Government  no 
longer  classifies  Shinto  as  a  religion,  but  merely  as  a  patriotic  associa- 
tion for  preserving  the  memory  of  ancestors  and  guarding  the 
national  monuments.  In  practice  Shinto  is  still  strongly  entrenched 
as  a  religion  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  common  people.  Wor- 
ship is  offered  to  the  souls  of  ancestors  (which  is  the  marrow  of 
Shinto  doctrine  and  practice)  and  their  help  is  sought  in  time  of 
need."1  The  cult  is  still  used  to  support  the  idea  of  the  divine 
descent  of  the  Imperial  House  and  as  a  makeshift  for  moral  sanction 
in  a  time  of  transition,  when  higher  authority  in  morals  and  politics 
is  lacking,  but  anticipating  the  inevitable  defeat  of  the  system  as  an 
adequate  religion,  it  has  been  quietly  withdrawn  from  the  field.3 

The  position  of  Buddhism  has  undergone  a  change  almost  as 
great  as  that  which  has  passed  over  Shintoism.  When  the  restora- 
tion of  1868  and  the  subsequent  treaties  opened  the  way  for  mis- 
sionary work,  the  Buddhists  were  drowsily  living  their  old  life  and 
murmuring  their  old  prayers.  They  did  not  at  first  realize  the 
significance  of  the  new  day.  As  one  of  them  wrote  in  The  Far 
East,  "The  Tokugawa  period  having  been  the  golden  age  of  the 
Buddhists,  they  were  reluctant  to  part  with  the  old  institution  and 
custom,  moreover  the  pride  and  vanity  of  their  better  days  were 
still  running  through  their  veins.  Whilst  they  were  dreaming  of  the 
pleasant  past  with  their  backs  towards  the  public,  the  people  made  a 
rapid  progress  in  culture.  The  result  was  that  the  Buddhist,  who 
had  hitherto  been  the  leader  in  the  religious  and  educational  affairs 
as  well,  became  now  the  straggler  in  the  path  of  knowledge."  3  The 
Buddhists  soon  awoke,  however,  and  the  inevitable  struggle  began  be- 
tween the  conservative  element  hating  change,  and  the  party  which 

'Grant,  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  1901,  Vol.  I,  p.  288. 

8  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  pp.  33off ;  Ecumenical   Conference  Report,  Vol.  I, 
p.  528;  Ritter,  History  of  Protestant  Jl/issions  in  Japan,  p.  124. 
3  The  Far  East,  July  20,  1898,  p.  543. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  405 

saw  that  change  was  indispensable  if  the  religion  was  not  to  be  swept 
away.  How  radical  is  the  transformation  of  the  Buddhist  spirit  in 
consequence  is  shown  in  the  statement  and  appeal  of  Soen  Shaku, 
the  Chief  Priest  of  the  Engakuji  sect,  who  was  one  of  the  Japanese 
attendants  at  the  Parliament  of  Religions  : 

"  The  new  movement  signifies  the  correction  of  the  vices  of  the  former  con- 
servatism and  the  adjustment  of  Buddhism  to  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  advanced  state  of  affairs  in  our  country  no  longer  allows  the 
ancient  religion  to  slumber  on  in  its  conservatism ;  no  longer  permits  its  devotees 
to  retire  into  mountain  solitudes,  or  to  pay  blind  reverence  to  the  sacred  writings, 
to  consider  the  full  extent  of  their  duty  discharged  when  they  have  burned 
incense  before  the  dead,  or  to  say,  *  our  duty  is  to  worship  and  to  offer  sacrifices 
and  our  minds  must  not  be  distracted  by  the  fickle  changes  of  society.'  If  such 
were  the  duty  of  Buddhism,  what  would  be  the  use  of  its  existing  in  society  at 
all  ?  Therefore  it  is  that  Buddhism  is  obliged  to  bestir  itself  and  work  a  trans- 
formation in  its  spirit  and  methods.  Its  very  life  depends  upon  this.  It  is 
called  upon  to  manifest  a  progressive  spirit  both  in  matters  of  doctrine  and  by 
practical  activity ;  thus  helping  along  the  progress  of  the  country  and  propagat- 
ing with  new  vigour  the  doctrines  of  Buddha.  The  scientific  truths  that  are  so 
peculiarly  the  gift  of  the  nineteenth  century  must  be  impressed  into  the  service 
of  Buddhism  for  their  more  satisfactory  exposition,  and  philanthropic  enterprises 
of  all  kinds  must  be  undertaken.  Those  that  have  forsaken  the  world  and  re- 
tired into  solitude  for  meditation  must  come  out  of  these  retreats,  throw  themselves 
into  the  busy  world  and  take  a  hand  in  the  social  enterprises  of  the  day.  Those 
who  used  to  be  satisfied  with  dogmas  and  superstitions  must  be  about  the  work 
of  setting  before  the  world,  a  rational  and  practical  Buddhism  that  will  satisfy 
the  minds  of  thinkers,  as  well  as  the  demands  of  a  needy  society.  This  is  what 
the  new  movement  of  Buddhism  involves."  * 

Kaifu  Nukariya  holds  that  the  religion  must  be  purified  "from old 
Hinduism,"  in  other  words  must  cease  to  be  Buddhism.2  Many 
changes  have  taken  place,  but  of  course  there  is  a  vast  deal  of  the  old 
system  absolutely  untouched,  and  the  shrines  are  often  full  of  wor- 
shippers as  devout  and  superstitious  as  before  the  Meiji  Era  began, 
but  none  the  less,  it  is  true  that  Buddhism  in  Japan  has  undergone  a 
transformation  as  real  as  that  of  the  Government. 

And  the  attitude  of  the  influential  classes  has  changed  as  greatly. 
While  many  of  them  still  support  Buddhism  as  a  defence  against  too 
much  from  without,   or  as  another  makeshift  for  the  want  of  moral 

1  Quoted  in  the  Japan  Evangelist,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  5,  June,  1896,  pp.  2/8f. 
s  The  Far  East,  July  20,  1898,  p.  545. 


4o6  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

sanction  and  adequate  principle,  they  see  its  inadequacy,  its  super- 
stition and  often  speak  of  it  with  dissatisfaction  or  with  contempt. 
The  attitude  towards  it  of  the  strongest  class  of  minds  is  indicated  by 
the  position  of  the  Jiji  Shimpo,  the  late  Mr.  Fukuzawa's  paper,  and  one 
of  the  ablest  and  most  careful  papers  in  the  country.  Of  two  articles 
which  appeared  in  it,  the  Japan  Mail  said  :  "It  seems  to  accept 
without  question  the  fact  that  Buddhism  has  actually  entered  the 
downward  grade  and  it  refers  its  decline  to  the  immorality  and  igno- 
rance of  the  priests,  who,  since  the  Meiji  Government  abolished  the 
rules  of  celibacy  and  vegetable  diet,  have  abandoned  themselves  to 
riotous  living.  No  doubt,  if  Buddhism  is  to  be  rejuvenated,  the 
priests  must  become  radically  different  and  some  publicists,  who  are 
naturally  perturbed  at  seeing  Japan  drift  into  the  condition  of  a 
country  without  any  living  faith  of  any  kind,  advise  that  the  old  laws 
against  marriage  and  meat  should  be  revived  and  that  some  fiscal 
system,  like  the  tithes  in  England,  should  be  devised  for  supplying 
funds  to  the  temples.  Both  propositions  excite  the  JijV s  ridicule." 
"Japan,"  adds  the  Mail,  "is  an  interesting  country.  It  has  been 
an  interesting  country  for  the  past  forty  years.  This  moribund  con- 
dition of  its  only  religious  creed  is  certainly  not  the  least  interesting 
feature  of  its  modern  career."  x 

Great  as  has  been  the  change  in  the  character  and  position  of  Shin- 
toism  and  Buddhism  in  Japan  since  the  Meiji  Era  began,  the  change 
in  the  position  of  Christianity  has  been  greater  still.  In  the  early 
sixties,  a  few  missionaries  in  the  country  "  'found  that  they  were  re- 
garded with  great  suspicion  and  closely  watched  and  all  intercourse 
with  them  was  conducted  with  great  surveillance.'  'No  teacher 
could  be  obtained  at  Kanagawa  until  March,  i860,  and  then  only  a 
spy  in  the  employment  of  the  Government.  A  proposal  to  translate 
the  scriptures  caused  his  frightened  withdrawal.'  'We  found,'  wrote 
Dr.  Verbeck,  '  the  nation  not  at  all  accessible  touching  religious  mat- 
ters. Where  such  a  subject  was  mooted  in  the  presence  of  the 
Japanese,  his  hand  would,  almost  involuntarily,  be  applied  to  his 
throat,  to  indicate  the  extreme  perilousness  of  such  a  topic. "  '  2  The 
missionaries  were  regarded  as  "persons  who  had  come  to  seduce  the 

1  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  September  23,  1899. 

2  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  746;  Japan  Evangelist,  March,  1898,  pp.  93-96; 
April;  1898,  pp.  HO-113. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  407 

masses  of  the  people  from  their  loyalty  to  the  'God  country,'  and 
corrupt    their  morals  generally."  1     The  edicts  against  Christianity 
hung  along  the  country  roads,  in  city  streets,  by  ferry,  and  public 
meeting-place,  declaring,  "The  Christian  religion  has  been  prohibited 
for  many  years.     If  any  one  is  suspected,  a  report  must  be  made  at 
once,"  and  a  reward  was  offered  of  500  pieces  of  silver  to  an  informer 
upon  a  father,  and  300  pieces  for  other  betrayals,  even  of  a  family  who 
sheltered  a  Christian  or  a  Christian  who  had  once  recanted.      "  If  any 
one  will  inform  concerning  his  own  family,  he  will  be  rewarded  with 
500  pieces  of  silver."2     Even  after  the  Restoration  when  the  old 
laws  were  removed  and  those  of  the  new  Imperial  Government  posted, 
the  following  enactment  was  included,  "The  sect  called  Christian  is 
strictly  prohibited  ;  suspected  persons  should  be  referred  to  the  proper 
officers  and  rewards  will  be  given."     The  Bible  of  course  was  a  pro- 
scribed book.     "When  inquiry  was  made  of  the  Governor  of  Kobe 
whether  a  native  bookseller  would  be  permitted  to  sell  the  English 
Bible,  the  reply  was  given  that  any  Japanese  bookseller  who  sold  a 
Bible,  knowing  it  to  be  a  Bible,  would  have  to  go  to  prison."  3     In 
1869,  Yokoi  an  Imperial  Councillor,  was  assassinated  because  he  was 
suspected  "of  professing  wicked  opinions" — i.  <?.,  of  inclining  to 
Christianity,  in  which  he  did  believe  and  which  led  him  to  propose 
the  radical  reforms  which  were  later  adopted.4     In  1868,  a  large  Ro- 
man Catholic  community  was  discovered  which  had  held  its  faith  for 
the  two  centuries  of  isolation  from  Western  Christianity.     The  Govern- 
ment at  once  broke  up  the  community  and  sentenced  all  who  were 
convicted    of  the   crime  of  Christianity,  to  imprisonment  or  penal 
labour,  the  last  receiving  condemnation  in  187 2. 5     This  was  the  con- 
dition at  the  outset.     The  great  transformation  began  at  once.     In 
1873,  the   edict  against  Christianity  was  removed  from  the  notice 
boards.     The  Buddhist  sects  which  were  Christianity's  greatest  foe 
were  disestablished.     The  condemned  Roman  Catholic  Christians 
were  released.     The  spirit  of  the  people  changed  with  a  rapidity  un- 
precedented.    Count  Itagaki,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  new  era,  de- 
clared in  1884  that  "  the  hour  had  come  for  Japan  to  accept  Christi- 

1  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  747. 

2  Griffis,  Verbeck  of  Japan,  p.  96. 

3  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  748. 

4  Ritter,  History  of  Protesta?it  missions  in  Japan,  p.  286. 

5  Hid.,  pp.  3<3f. 


408  Missions  and  Modern  History 

anity,  since  without  it  she  could  not  secure  a  position  of  equality 
with  the  civilized  powers  of  the  West,"1  and  the  same  year,  Mr. 
Fukuzawa  took  the  ground  that  "the  Christian  religion  must  be  in- 
troduced from  Europe  and  America.  .  .  .  The  adoption  of 
this  religion  will  not  fail  to  bring  the  feelings  of  our  people  and  the 
institutions  of  our  land  into  harmony  with  those  of  the  lands  of  the 
Occident.  We  earnestly  desire,  for  the  sake  of  our  national  adminis- 
tration, that  steps  be  taken  for  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  as  the 
religion  of  Japan,"  2  and  when  in  1889,  the  Constitution  was  pro- 
mulgated, it  was  found  to  contain  as  Article  XXVIII,  this  provision, 
"Japanese  subjects  shall  within  limits  not  prejudicial  to  peace  or  or- 
der and  not  antagonistic  to  their  duties  as  subjects,  enjoy  freedom  of 
religious  belief."  Christianity  could  not  ask  more.  It  would 
not  desire  such  a  political  profession  of  faith  as  Mr  Fukuzawa  advo- 
cated and  as  for  a  time  seemed  not  improbable.  It  desires  only 
equality.  Later  legislation  proposed,  such  as  the  Religious  Bill  of 
1899,  contemplating  a  complete  legal  equality  of  Christianity  with 
Buddhism,  and  its  consequent  explicit  recognition,  would  complete 
the  transformation  since  the  days  when  the  evil  sect  was  religio  illicita 
and  so  proclaimed  on  every  highway  of  the  Empire. 

This  change  is  the  more  significant,  too,  when  it  is  considered 
that  it  has  taken  place  in  the  minds  of  the  most  influential  class. 
The  bitter  feelings  of  the  sixties  were  chiefly  conspicuous,  Dr.  Ver- 
beck  says,  among  the  higher  and  official  classes.3  It  is  here  that  the 
great  change  has  come.  "It  is  evident  now,"  Dr.  DeForrest  said 
at  the  Tokyo  Conference,  "  that  a  remarkable  section  of  the  educated 
people  are  friendly  to  and  helping  on  the  progress  of  Christianity," 
and  he  quoted  as  illustrative  of  the  new  view  of  many  who  still  are 
hostile  to  Western  Christianity,  the  words  of  Professor  Inouye  Tet- 
sujiro  of  the  Imperial  University,  addressed  to  a  thousand  teachers, 
"Jesus  Christ  was  crucified  between  two  thieves.  Who  knows  the 
names  of  the  thieves  ?  They  are  dead  and  gone.  But  Jesus  lives 
and  ever  will  live,  because  of  the  loftiness  of  His  ethical  teachings."  4 
The  Jesus  who  was  anathematized  and  by  edict  forbidden  to  exert 


1  Ritter,  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  fa  pan,  p.  1 30. 

2  Quoted  in  Stock,  History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  598f. 

3  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  748. 

4  Ibid.,  pp.  34of. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  409 

His  influence  in  Japan  is  slowly  gathering  into  His  hand  the  hearts 
of  those  who  hated  Him  without  a  cause.  It  must  not  be  supposed 
that  this  wonderful  transformation  in  Japan  has  been  all  smooth  and 
harmonious.  Politically,  the  clan  rebellion  of  1877,  when  the  Sat- 
suma  clan  under  Saigo  rebelled  against  the  more  progressive  element, 
and  its  suppression,  ended  all  violent  opposition  to  the  new  move- 
ment but  its  progress  has  been  spiral  and  spasmodic  rather  than 
steadily  upward.1  There  have  been  reactions  against  foreign  in- 
fluence and  irritation.  Yet  the  movement  has  never  halted,  nor  has 
there  ever  been  any  doubt  as  to  its  reality  or  its  permanence.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  progress  of  Christianity  in  Japan.  It  has  not  been 
at  all  regular.  From  1859  to  1872,  almost  nothing  that  could  be 
publicly  shown  had  been  accomplished.  From  1872  to  1888,  there 
was  a  flood-tide  of  interest  in  Christianity  of  which  the  opinion  of  Mr. 
Fukuzawa,  already  quoted,  is  illustrative.  I  asked  Dr.  Verbeck  once 
for  a  statement  of  the  cause  of  this  peculiar  interest,  and  he  replied  : 

"  (a)  In  the  first  place,  everything  foreign  was  in  high  vogue  in  this  early 
period  and  there  was  a  wide-spread  desire  on  the  part  of  the  more  advanced  and 
enterprising  classes  to  inquire  into  and,  not  infrequently,  to  adopt  western  ideas 
and  things.  Christianity  got  its  full  share  of  this  general  tendency  during  the 
years  following  the  organization  of  the  first  churches  in  1872  and  1873, — thirteen 
years  after  the  opening  of  the  country  and  barely  four  years  after  the  Restoration. 

"  (6)  Then  there  was  also  the  attraction  of  a  striking  novelty  attaching  to 
Christianity. 

"  (c)  But  a  chief  cause  lies  in  the  fact  that  western  science  and  art,  home 
politics  and  journalism,  foreign  travel  and  commerce,  manufactures  and  industries 
on  foreign  lines, — that  all  these  were  still  in  their  infancy  and  had  as  yet  attracted 
the  attention  of  comparatively  very  few  people.  There  was  then  hardly  yet  even  an 
idea  of  an  Imperial  Parliament,  political  parties  had  not  yet  been  organized, 
army  and  navy  as  we  have  them  now  had  no  existence,  there  were  no  railroad 
and  steamboat  companies,  a  few  little  newspapers  had  only  just  been  started,  and 
foreign  diplomatic  relations  came  within  the  scope  of  a  few  officials  only. 
Hence  the  minds  of  the  people  at  large  were  for  the  most  part,  as  it  were,  un- 
occupied, and  thus  there  existed  then  that  remarkable  openness  for  the  entrance 
and  reception  of  Christianity  which  was  a  surprise  to  many  here  and  abroad. 

"  (d)  All  that  has  been  enumerated  under  (r)  to  account  for  a  remarkable 
kind  of  openness  of  the  people's  minds  at  that  time,  produced  another  leading 
cause  of  the  prevailing  impulse  towards  Christianity.     The  country  and  especially 

1  For  a  full  account  of  the  rebellion  see  Morrissey,  Satsuma  Rebellion  ;  Black, 
Young  Japan,  London  and  Yokohama,  1881. 


41  o  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Tokyo  and  the  open  ports  were  at  that  time  full  of  the «  unemployed,'  and  indeed 
of  the  very  best  class  of  people,  the  intelligent  and  more  or  less  educated  Samurai 
class.  It  was  from  this  class  that  (with  solitary  exceptions)  the  early  converts, 
teachers,  evangelists  and  pastors  were  recruited.  After  the  Restoration  in  1868, 
and  still  more  after  the  abolition  of  Feudalism  about  three  years  later,  tens  of 
thousands  of  this  class  were  left  without  a  career  and  not  a  few  of  them  almost 
without  a  living, — especially  those  Samurai  of  the  clans  who  had  opposed  the 
Restoration.  When,  after  the  Restoration,  the  time  for  the  division  of  spoils 
(honour,  rank,  office,  etc.)  arrived,  these  latter  Samurai  were  left  out  in  the 
cold.  Most  if  not  all  of  Bishop  Nicolai's  (Greek)  preachers  and  evangelists 
came  from  this  very  class,  and  so  also  did  not  a  few  of  ours  and  of  the  other  mis- 
sions. 

"  (e)  The  severe  edict  against  Christianity,  which  had  been  exposed  for  a 
couple  of  centuries  on  the  public  notice-boards  throughout  the  land,  was  re- 
moved in  February,  1 87 3,  and  this  memorable  event  made  a  deep  impression 
even  on  minds  otherwise  neutral  or  indifferent. 

"  Such  were  some  of  the  causes  of  the  exceptional  impulse  towards  Christianity 
in  the  early  period  of  the  mission  work." 

During  this  period  it  seemed  for  a  time  that  Christianity  was  about 
to  achieve  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  her  history,  and  in  1887, 
the  missionaries  of  the  Council  of  Missions,  cooperating  with  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan,  issued  an  appeal  for  great  reinforcements  on  the 
ground  that  "  this  course  will  go  far  towards  ending  our  work  in  the 
Empire."     This  appeal  is  so  interesting  that  it  should  be  preserved  : 

"  There  seem  to  us  to  be  good  reasons  why  we  should  put  forth  extraordinary 
efforts  in  Japan  during  the  remaining  years  of  this  century. 

"  I.  Unto  this  are  we  called.  Japan  is  now  in  the  midst  of  a  great  crisis  in 
her  history ;  and  everything  goes  to  show  that  the  nation  is  in  a  marvellously  re- 
ceptive mood. 

"  After  two  centuries  of  seclusion,  the  country  is  suddenly  open  to  the  world. 
The  Shogun  is  gone,  the  Mikado  restored  to  power  ;  and,  with  the  suppression 
of  the  Satsuma  revolt,  the  integrity  of  the  empire  established.  With  the  recep. 
tion  of  foreigners  a  new  type  of  civilization  has  been  welcomed.  The  tele- 
graph stretches  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  The  mail  service  is 
admirable.  Railways  cross  the  country  in  various  directions,  and  fleets  of 
steamers  ply  from  port  to  port  up  and  down  the  coast.  Banks  and  hospitals  have 
been  established.  Daily  newspapers  abound.  There  is  an  excellent  system  of 
education  culminating  in  a  university.  The  army  and  navy  are  organized  after 
foreign  models.  A  new  code  of  laws  based  upon  those  of  Europe  has  been 
adopted.  The  recent  proclamation  issued  in  the  name  of  the  Empress  recom. 
mends  the  adoption  of  foreign  dress  by  the  women  of  the  country.  In  the  year 
1890  there  is  to  be  a  Parliament.     Certainly  a  nation  that  has  seen  such  things 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  411 

as  these  accomplished  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  may  see  great  things 
done  by  the  year  1900. 

"  But  the  movement  now  witnessed  in  Japan  is  not  confined  to  such  particulars 
as  these.  It  includes  also  the  question  of  religion.  There  can  be  no  vigorous 
national  life  without  some  religion  :  Brahmanism  and  Mohammedanism  are  out 
of  the  question :  Buddhism  is  condemned  already :  there  remains  only  Chris- 
tianity. That  is  the  common  position  assumed  by  the  press.  And  what  the  press 
encourages  the  Government  allows.  Ten  years  ago  it  was  a  question  whether  it 
would  be  permitted  to  build  a  church  on  a  public  street  in  the  city  of  Tokyo  ; 
churches  are  now  found  in  every  direction.  Once,  it  was  with  the  greatest  dif- 
ficulty that  a  Japanese  could  be  found  to  print  a  translation  of  one  of  the  Gospels  : 
now,  large  printing  houses  compete  for  the  work  of  the  Bible  and  Tract  Societies  ; 
treatises  on  theology  are  printed  and  bound  at  the  Government  establishment ; 
and  the  Scriptures,  and  Christian  books,  magazines  and  newspapers  go  every- 
where freely.  More  than  this  :  there  are  men  now  living  who  confessed  Christ 
at  the  peril  of  their  lives  ;  and  these  same  men  are  to-day  preaching  Christ  in 
public  halls  and  theatres  to  audiences  that  are  glad  to  hear  them.  The  tone  of 
Buddhism  is  a  tone  of  defeat ;  Christianity  is  confident  of  victory. 

"  This  however  is  not  all.  Not  only  is  Christianity  a  common  theme — pro- 
claimed upon  the  platform,  discussed  on  the  railway,  queried  about  in  the  country 
inns :  not  only  is  it  encouraged  openly  by  the  press  and  tacitly  by  the  Govern- 
ment :  it  is  rapidly  crystallizing  into  churches.  At  the  close  of  the  last  year 
(1886),  there  were  connected  with  the  United  Church  fifty-five  organized 
churches,  twenty-five  of  which  are  wholly  self-supporting.  There  was  a  mem- 
bership of  5,472.  The  ministers  numbered  twenty-eight,  and  the  theological 
students  forty-three.  The  contributions  for  the  year  amounted  to  more  than  ten 
thousand  (Mexican)  dollars.  This  is  the  report  of  the  United  Church  alone . 
and  others  are  doing  likewise.  The  Board  of  Home  Missions  connected  with 
the  Synod  is  simply  overwhelmed  with  applications.  It  is  not  rash  to  say  that 
rightly  directed  labour  in  almost  any  town  in  the  empire  would  end  before  long  in 
an  organized  church. 

"  This  then  is  our  opportunity  :  such  an  opportunity  as  the  modern  church  has 
never  had  vouchsafed  to  it.  A  century  ago  was  heard  once  more  a  divine  voice 
saying,  Go  teach  all  nations.  And  men  asked,  whither  shall  we  go  ?  Today 
a  man  stands  upon  the  shore  of  Japan  crying,  Come  over  into  Asia  and  help  us. 

"  And  we  must  go  now.  This  is  reason  :  There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men 
and  of  nations.  It  is  Scripture  also  :  When  the  apostles  heard  that  Samaria  had 
received  the  word  of  God,  they  sent  Peter  and  John.  When  tidings  came  from 
Antioch,  the  Church  sent  forth  the  Son  of  Exhortation.  There  is  a  time  to  reap. 
And  it  is  into  the  harvest  field  above  all  places  that  our  Lord  bids  us  to  pray 
that  the  labourers  may  be  sent.  Other  nations  may  wait,  but  this  nation  cannot 
wait.     For  He  is  not  dealing  so  with  any  other  nation. 

"  II.  Not  only  is  such  effort  in  Japan  our  duty;  it  is  true  wisdom,  wise  war- 
fare. 


412  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"  First :  This  course  will  go  far  towards  ending  our  work  in  the  empire.  By 
this  it  is  not  meant  that  the  close  of  the  century  will  see  all  knowing  the  Lord, 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest.  But  it  does  mean  that  there  is  good  reason  to  hope 
that  a  vigorous  aggressive  church  may  then  be  planted  in  all  parts  of  the  land. 
It  means  that  foreign  missions  may  then  give  way  to  home  missions.  It  means 
that  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  will  have  been 
preached  as  a  witness  in  Japan.  And  when  that  is  done  the  Church  at  home 
will  be  free  to  go  elsewhere. 

"  Secondly  :  This  course  will  yield  us  an  early  friend  in  Asia.  The  Church 
in  the  Sandwich  Islands  has  done  excellent  service  in  the  Pacific;  but  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  are  as  nothing  to  Japan.  For  Japan  is  alive,  energetic,  eager — a 
nation  with  a  destiny.  And  a  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  would  be  throughout 
all  Eastern  Asia  an  ally  that  would  be  invaluable.  Granted  that  the  amount  of 
effort  needed  to  accomplish  the  task  presented  might  (or  might  not)  result  in  an 
equal  number  of  individual  believers  scattered  here  and  there  over  the  world ; 
still,  as  an  ally  in  the  near  future,  these  would  be  but  weak  in  comparison  with  a 
vigorous  church  in  Japan. 

"  We  do  not  forget  that  the  field  is  the  world.  The  question  is  merely 
one  of  method.  No  one  church  can  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation. 
Even  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  made  a  choice  among  the  Gentiles ;  and  so 
must  we.  We  must  choose  between  nations  and  individuals  in  different  nations. 
In  doing  this  it  may  be  that  we  must  needs  pass  by  Bithynia ;  but  even  so,  let  us 
go  into  Macedonia.     What  we  press  is  Japan  to-day  in  order  to  China  to-morrow." 

These  hopes  were  not  realized,  not  because  reinforcements  were 
not  sent,  but  because  there  set  in  a  reactionary  movement  that  dis- 
appointed them.  A  spirit  of  intense  nationalism  grew  up.  The  de- 
lay in  treaty  revision  and  in  the  abolition  of  extra  territoriality  vexed 
the  people.  Buddhism  revived  within  and  from  without  heresies  and 
new  superstitions  came  in,  while  the  nation  began  to  perceive  the 
supposed  separability  of  religion  from  life.  When  Dr.  Verbeck  was 
asked  to  explain  the  reaction  he  said  :  "In  the  first  place,  it  must  be 
well  understood  that  the  so-called  reaction  was  by  no  means  directed 
against  Christianity  alone,  but  that  the  advance  of  Christianity  was 
simply  much  retarded  by  a  general  anti-foreign  reaction.  This  re- 
action made  itself  felt  against  many  other  western  things,  such  as 
foreign  architecture  (private),  furniture  and  dress,  languages  and 
some  of  the  arts,  customs,  manners  and  social  intercourse  and 
comity.  With  reference  to  this  and  some  other  western  things, 
there  set  in  a  strong  impulse  towards  the  old  and  indigenous— at  all 
events  against  many  things  new  and  foreign.     An  intense  national 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  413 

spirit  was  aroused,  I  should  say  somewhere  between  1886  and  1888 
and  the  advance  of  Christianity  was  much  affected  by  it.  Some 
thoroughly  material  and  secular  things,  such  as,  for  instance, 
railroads  and  steamboats,  industry,  commerce,  army  and  navy,  the 
secular  sciences,  were  hardly  at  all  affected  by  the  national  reaction 
and  for  assignable  reasons.  Christianity  suffered  from  it  more 
severely  than  some  of  the  other  things  mentioned.  But  the  reaction 
was  not  primarily  or  exclusively  directed  against  Christianity."  l 

From  1888  to  the  present,  the  work  of  missions  went  on  not  less 
encouragingly,  but  with  less  startling  progress,  solidifying  the  place 
of  Christianity,  and  strengthening  the  native  church  until  in  1901  a 
revived  interest  swept  over  the  empire  and  crowded  many  churches 
with  inquirers,  renewing  in  many  hearts  which  had  lost  it  the  hope  of 
the  triumph  of  Christianity  sooner  or  later  in  the  nation  which  is 
sincerely  bent  on  having  the  best  that  can  be  found  in  the  world  in 
every  department  of  life  and  in  the  principles  of  life  itself.2 

And  the  transformation  of  Japan  which  we  have  been  considering 
has  created  necessities,  which  can  be  met  only  by  the  triumph  of 

1  " '  The  spirit  of  intense  nationalism  '  which  '  grew  up '  and  by  preventing  that 
speedy  and  complete  conquest  of  Japan  by  Christianity  caused  such  bitter  disap- 
pointment," writes  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Doughty,  formerly  of  Japan,  "  is  something 
that  it  seems  to  me  few  foreigners  understand  either  in  its  nature  or  in  its  intensity. 
It  is  not  merely  the  protest  of  the  evil  against  the  good,  or  of  conservatism  against 
progress,  or  of  the  East  against  the  West  or  even  of  paganism  against  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  It  has  to  some  the  appearance  of  representing  all  of  these  and  it  is 
perhaps  tinctured  by  all  and  is  therefore  all  the  more  misunderstood.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  it  is  in  its  essence  a  protest  against  arbitrary  and  unreasonable  change. 
So  far  as  Christianity  was  concerned  it  was  the  attempt  to  impose  upon  the  Japa- 
nese people  the  religion  as  modified  in  its  forms  and  coloured  in  its  teachings  by 
the  philosophical  and  theological  notions  and  the  customs  peculiar  to  western  na- 
tions, the  roots  of  which  moreover  are  often  to  be  found  outside  of  Christianity, 
that  called  forth  this  intense  protest.  Christianity  is  one  but  nevertheless  it  is 
shaped  and  formed  and  infused  by  the  spirit  of  every  separate  nation  in  which  it 
exists.  There  is  no  people  in  the  world  with  an  intenser  national  spirit  than  the 
Japanese.  I  am  satisfied  that  it  is  only  essential  Christianity  that  is  making 
progress  in  Japan.  Those  who  are  building  denominations  and  sects  are  de- 
ceived and  those  who  endeavour  to  transplant  western  customs  work  in  vain. 
The  different  churches  in  Japan  are  separated  from  each  other  simply  by  the 
foreigner.  Shortly  after  these  are  removed  the  national  spirit  will  weld  them  into 
one  or  rather  it  will  cause  them  to  coalesce.  The  Japanese  are  intensely  rational 
and  practical  and  are  not  to  be  kept  in  bondage  by  the  prejudices  of  any.  They 
will  ultimately  come  into  their  own,  and  I  am  extremely  hopeful  that  they  will 
choose  the  best  and  give  the  world  a  glorious  type  of  the  Christian  faith.  The 
spirit  of  intense  nationalism  is  therefore  not,  I  think,  an  enemy  to  Christianity 
but  a  friend." 

sEdit.  "  Religious  Future  of  Japan,"  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  io,  1897. 


414  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Christianity,  on  the  supposition,  of  course,  that  the  transformation 
that  has  taken  place  is  real  and  permanent.  Who  can  believe  other- 
wise? As  Captain  Brinkley  says  :  "  No  one  that  knows  Japan  can 
doubt  that  her  permeation  with  the  spirit  of  Western  civilization  is 
deep  and  genuine.  To  speak  of  her  as  a  country  possessing  the 
veneer  of  civilization  is  the  idle  babbling  of  a  fool."  The  Japanese, 
themselves,  have  no  doubt  that  the  change  is  abiding.  "To  those 
accustomed  to  listen  to  Japanese  sermons  and  addresses,"  says  Dr. 
Gordon,  "the  two  phrases  not  strictly  religious  which  become  most 
familiar  from  constant  repetition  are  bummei  (civilization)  and  Shin 
Nippon  (New  Japan).  There  are  no  prophecies  of  the  coming  of  a 
new  nation,  no  arguments  to  prove  an  impending  national  regenera- 
tion ;  it  is  always  taken  for  granted  that  the  new  nation  is  already 
here  and  to  stay."  *  Whatever  may  be  said  of  Japanese  character 
generally,  it  is  certain  that  the  men  who  have  thus  far  guided  the 
New  Japan  are  men  of  modesty,  of  good  sense,  of  sincerity,  of  clear 
understanding  of  their  problem,  and  of  resolute  purpose  to  achieve 
the  end  they  see  before  them.  The  Imperial  Proclamation  issued  at 
the  close  of  the  China  War  expresses  their  spirit :  "  Gratified  as  we 
are,"  the  Emperor  said,  "that  the  victories  recently  obtained  have 
enhanced  the  glory  of  the  Empire,  we  are  nevertheless  sensible  that 
the  road  still  to  be  traversed  by  the  country  in  its  march  of  civiliza- 
tion is  long  and  arduous.  We  hope  in  common  with  our  loyal  sub- 
jects to  be  constantly  on  the  watch  against  any  feeling  of  self  content 
and  ever  in  the  spirit  of  modesty  to  labour,  etc."  And  the  spirit  of 
the  people  as  a  whole  is  such  as  to  support  the  conviction  that  the 
new  life  of  the  nation  is  a  new  life,  and  that  the  Meiji  Era  is  to  be  a 
really  new  era  in  the  national  history.  Once  and  forever  Japan  has 
broken  with  Orientalism  and  thrown  in  her  lot  with  the  life  of  the 
civilized  world,  and  her  people  are  able  to  endure  and  accept  the  edu- 
cation which  they  will  need  for  this.  I  once  asked  a  foreigner  who 
had  been  long  a  resident  of  Japan  and  who  knew  the  Japanese  as  well 
as  any  foreigner  knew  them,  for  his  frank  opinion  about  Japanese 
character  and  with  the  understanding  that  it  would  not  be  published 
at  that  time,  he  gave  it  to  me : 

1  Gordon,  An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,  p.  221  ;  Beaulieu,  "  Azvakening 
of  the  East,  p.  173;  The  Far  East,  Vol.  I,  No.  9,  October  20,  1896,  p.  10;  No.  I. 
February  20,  1896,  pp.  10-13. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  415 

"  The  clever  author  of  The  Life  of  Sir  Harry  Parkes  (a  former  British 
Minister  in  Japan),  says  :  '  It  must  always  be  remembered  that  Old  Japan  had 
n^  Tudea  to  teach  her  religion,  no  Greece  to  teach  her  culture,  and  no  Rome  to 
teac  .ier  political  science.'  The  marks  of  these  grave  deficiencies  are  perceptible 
in  nearly  all  the  manifestations  of  even  the  modern  spirit  of  Japan,  and  are  likely 
to  continue  to  be  so  for  yet  a  long  time  to  come. 

"  I  would  also  recommend  on  the  present  topic  a  contribution  by  the  Rev.  S. 
A.  Barnett  to  the  Contemporary  Review  of  April,  1892,  entitled  '  Christianity  in 
the  East.'  Mr.  Barnett  therein  depicts  the  characteristics  of  the  spirit  of  India, 
of  China,  and  of  Japan ;  and  although  he  may  sometimes  magnify  and  some- 
times minify  some  one  or  other  of  the  characteristics  he  depicts,  yet  on  the  whole 
gives  one  a  good  insight  into  the  true  character  of  Orientals  in  general  and  of  the 
Japanese  in  particular. 

"  A  striking  feature  in  the  Japanese  character  is  their  intense  ambition,  a  desire 
to  advance  and  rise,  not  to  be  behind  or  below  anybody.  This  feeling  pervades 
all  classes  and  must  be  regarded  as  a  potent  factor  in  the  nation's  astounding 
progress  during  the  last  thirty  years.  It  is  a  valuable  stimulus  and  often  very 
laudable ;  but  foreigners  may  sometimes  come  into  unpleasant  contact  with  it. 
The  strongly  prevailing  national  spirit,  in  itself  sufficiently  honourable,  frequently 
manifests  itself  towards  foreigners  in  the  form  of  unbounded  conceit  and  per- 
sistent self-assertion.  Self-sufficiency  and  self-reliance  are  also  prominent  char- 
acteristics. Mere  boys  will  often  be  seen  to  « rush  in '  where  Western  doctors 
would  •  fear  to  tread.'  Virtue  and  anything  like  high  morality,  as  we  under- 
stand these,  are  well-nigh  unknown  quantities  to  them.  (I  am  now  speaking  of 
the  '  outside  of  the  church.')  Sincerity,  frankness  and  truthfulness  are  largely 
wanting.  Manners  are  their  morals ;  etiquette  is  their  ethique,  all  surface  work, 
you  know. 

"  The  Japanese  are,  according  to  their  lights,  bright,  intelligent,  quick-witted 
and  fond  of  criticising  others,  especially  foreigners ;  but  exceedingly  dislike  being 
censured  in  any  way  and  are  extremely  sensitive  to  public  opinion,  good  or  bad, 
— nay,  to  the  outside  world's  opinion  of  them  as  a  nation.  They  are  remarkably 
brave,  enterprising  and  capable  of  great  self-sacrifice  for  a  definite  purpose,  but 
are  frequently  found  wanting  in  moral  courage.  They  dislike  being  under  obli- 
gation to  others,  especially  to  foreigners.  They  are  naturally  kind,  benevolent, 
and  towards  children  over-indulgent,  but  are  devoid  of  a  forgiving  spirit, — they 
never  forgive  what  they  happen  to  regard  as  an  injury  or  an  insult. 

"  The  Japanese  are  exceedingly  frivolous,  are  lacking  seriousness  in  their  dis- 
position and  abound  in  levity,  are  little  affected  by  the  grand  or  the  sublime,  have 
few  enthusiasms  and  inspirations,  are  too  fickle  to  know  true  placidity  of  mind 
and  too  callous  to  escape  from  falling  into  cold  indifference,  have  little  acquaint- 
ance with  deep  sorrow,  and  '  there  is  no  fifty-first  Psalm  in  their  language  and 
no  Puritan  in  their  history.' 

"  One  often  hears  the  Japanese  charged  with  extreme  fickleness,  especially  in 
comparison  with  the  Chinese.     This  charge,  I  think,  requires  to  be  somewhat 


416  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

qualified.  During  the  feudal  regime,  for  about  three  centuries,  they  surely  were 
sufficiently  steady  and  conservative.  The  Chinese  as  a  nation  have  not  yet 
emerged  from  that  kind  of  stagnancy,  whereas  the  Japanese  have  entered  on  the 
path  of  human  progress.  The  present  generation  of  Japanese  lives  and  moves  in 
an  age  of  change  in  all  departments  of  life,  in  an  age  of  transition  from  the  old  to 
the  new.  In  things  material  as  well  as  immaterial  they  are  making  for  some- 
thing better  and  something  higher  than  what  they  were  and  had  by  heredity  and 
transmission  from  of  old.  The  Japanese  are  quick-witted  and  apt  to  jump  to  a  con- 
clusion without  sufficient  knowledge  or  examination;  hence  they  readily  enter  upon 
a  thing  quite  new  to  them.  It  does  not  take  them  long  to  find  out  that  they  have 
made  a  mistake,  or  perhaps  they  are  disappointed,  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  likely 
that  another  •  good  thing '  has  attracted  their  attention.  And  so  they  go  in  for  that, 
and  (please  don't  smile)  so  on.  But  by  and  by,  when  they  have  finally  hit  upon  the 
right  thing,  they  are  quite  steady  and  often  splendidly  persevering ;  witness,  e.  g., 
the  numerous  small  and  great  enterprises,  often  involving  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  money,  carried  on  by  them  at  this  present  time  without  the  least  foreign  aid, 
with  profit  and  success.  You  may  see  the  above-described  process  acted  out  be- 
fore your  eyes  every  day  outside  of  the  churches  and  sometimes  inside  of  the 
churches;  but  when  inside  of  the  churches  it  has  happened  that  the  final  stage  of 
the  process  was  not  attained  to  by  individuals,  it  was  usually  in  pretty  clear  cases 
of  i  jfohn  2  :  ig. 

"  Probably  on  account  of  their  unacquaintance  with  the  certainties  of  science, 
the  average  Japanese  have  no  clear  idea  of  the  fixity,  certainty  and  reality  of 
things  or  the  nature  of  things,  especially  of  immaterial  things.  They  do  not  con- 
ceive that  things  are  what  they  are,  quite  independently  of  man's  opinion  and 
liking  or  disliking.  To  most  Japanese,  things  are  what  they  themselves  and  this 
one  or  that  one  make  them  to  be  by  their  opinions. 

"  As  regards  the  present  attitude  of  the  non-Christian  spirit  of  Japan  towards 
Christianity,  I  think  it  may  be  said  to  regard  our  religion  with  more  or  less  of 
appreciation  and  respect.  But  the  upper  classes  look  upon  the  native  Christians, 
especially  upon  the  pastors,  with  a  good  deal  of  doubt  and  suspicion.  They  some- 
times express  wonder  at  the  confidence  placed  in  them ;  but  this  is  mostly  from 
not  really  knowing  them. 

"  My  answer  to  this  question  is  of  necessity  very  general.  On  going  more  into 
detail,  there  are  of  course  many  exceptions  and  qualifications  to  be  made,  and 
these  will  become  more  numerous  and  weighty  when  different  classes  of  society 
are  under  consideration.  But  on  the  whole  '  the  dominant  characteristics  of  the 
present  spirit  of  Japan  outside  of  the  churches  '  are  such  as  are  here  briefly  stated. 
Finally,  comparing  the  Japanese  with  other  races,  I  should  say  that  their  general 
spirit  and  character  approach  the  Latin  and  Slavonic  races  of  Europe  much  more 
nearly  than  they  do  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

"  On  a  reperusal  of  this  answer,  I  almost  feel  as  if  I  had  been  too  hard  on 
these  good  people.  In  order  somewhat  to  adjust  the  balance,  I  may  here  add 
that  the  Japanese  are  the  nicest  and  brightest  people  to  fall  in  with  and  live 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  417 

among.  I  am  not  surprised  to  see  that  many  travellers  are  quite  smitten  with 
them.  During  many  years  of  close  intercourse  with  them,  I  myself  have  never 
had  the  least  difficulty  with  the  non-Christian  Japanese,  have  experienced  noth- 
ing but  kindness  and  respect  at  their  hands,  and  have  many  friends  among 
them."  1 

The  troubling  of  conscience  that  came  to  this  student  of  Japanese 
character  lest  his  judgment  was  unduly  severe  was  doubtless  war- 
ranted. I  think  he  himself  would  pronounce  a  more  favourable 
judgment  to-day.  I  believe  these  people  are  capable,  with  the  Gospel, 
of  accepting  and  contributing  to  the  civilization  of  the  West. 

But  the  problems  which  their  acceptance  of  that  civilization  has  intro- 
duced cannot  be  solved  without  the  Gospel.  "The  new  form  of  ex- 
istence chosen  by  Japan,"  says  Dr.  Wainwright,  "is  more  highly 
ethical  in  character  and  makes  enormous  demands  on  the  moral  and 
intellectual  resources  of  the  nation.  Conscience  must  play  a  greater 
part  and  assert  itself  with  greater  power  where  outward  restraint  has 
been  removed.  Where  prejudice,  self-interest  and  habit  must  drop 
out  and  conduct  be  squared  to  principle  and  where  mighty  impulses 
and  energies  must  be  held  in  check  and  made  to  minister  to  man's 
higher  needs."  2  Furthermore,  the  new  civilization  in  Japan  has 
introduced  some  ideas  which  demand  others  as  their  correlatives 
and  for  their  completion.  "The  rights  of  private  judgment  and  of 
religious  liberty  are  two  important  corollaries  of  the  Christian  prin- 
ciple of  individual  worth.  These  are  fully  recognized  in  Japan,  le- 
gally and  popularly.  There  is  practically  no  persecution  to-day  in 
Japan.  Personal  moral  responsibility  is  another  corollary.  Individ- 
ual choice  determines  individual  character.  From  being  highly  com- 
munal, the  new  social  order  has  become  highly  individualistic.  As 
in  no  previous  age  of  Japanese  history,  every  man  is  left  to  determine 
his  own  place  in  life,  his  own  education,  his  own  profession  or  occu- 
pation, and  his  own  moral  character.  This  fact  accounts  at  once  for 
the  rapidly  growing  immorality  of  new  Japan,  and  for  the  equally 
rapid  development  among  all  serious-minded  men  of  the  belief  that 
Japan  is  in  need  of  a  new  religion,  and  this,  regardless  of  the  fact 
that  they  make  no  practice  of  believing  in  any  religion  themselves. 
Now  it  is  manifest  to  him  who  will  give  the  matter  careful  thought, 

•See  also  editorial,  "Racial  Constancy  and  Inconstancy,"   Kobe   Chronicle, 
June  23,  1902. 

8  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  237. 


418  Missions  and  Modern  History 

that  only  an  individualistic  religion  can  meet  the  moral  demands  of 
an  individualistic  age.  A  religion  therefore  which  calls  on  every 
man  to  decide  for  himself  his  own  moral  nature  and  destiny  by  a 
prompt  and  decided  moral  choice,  at  the  same  time  providing  him 
with  high  ideals,  powerful  religious  sanctions  and  adequate  spiritual 
power,  only  such  a  religion  can  cope  with  the  moral  looseness  of  an 
age,  that  gives  to  each  man  complete  freedom  to  decide  all  things  for 
himself."  '  This  age-spirit  and  Christianity  are  indissolubly  inter- 
locked. It  is  the  great  force  which  produced  this  spirit.  It  alone 
can  control  it.  Japan  having  accepted  the  age-spirit  has  brought 
herself  under  the  immense  necessities  it  creates  without  any  religion 
able  to  meet  these  necessities.2 

The  country  already  feels  this  and  will  feel  it  more  acutely.3  It  is 
felt  now  in  the  want  of  clean  moral  sanction.  It  will  be  felt  in  eco- 
nomic difficulty.  The  old  communal  responsibilities  are  destroyed. 
The  age  of  individual  action  and  independence  has  set  in.  The 
ideas  of  individual  responsibility  have  not  been  developed  and  can- 
not be  without  the  religion  which  alone  can  produce  them.  What 
will  be  the  economic  effect  in  a  society  where  in  1896,  cotton  mill 
operators  worked  eleven  hours  a  day  with  average  wages  for  males  of 

1  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  1 90 1,  Vol.  I,  p.  294. 

2  Gulick,  Evolution  of  the  Japanese,  pp.  417-419. 

3 "  The  change  that  has  been  going  on  for  many  years  in  the  religious  thought 
and  life  in  Japan  has  been  particularly  marked  during  the  past  year.  In  a  re- 
cent address  to  young  men,  Count  Okuma  (who  was  at  one  time  Prime  Minister, 
and  is  still  one  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  country),  said, '  It  is  a  question 
whether  we  have  not  lost  moral  fibre  as  the  result  of  the  many  new  influences  to 
which  we  have  been  subjected.  Development  has  been  intellectual  and  not 
moral.  The  efforts  which  Christians  are  making  to  supply  to  the  country  a  high 
standard  of  conduct  are  welcomed  by  all  right-thinking  people.  As  you  read  the 
Bible  you  may  think  it  is  antiquated,  out  of  date.  The  words  it  contains  may  so 
appear,  but  the  noble  life  which  it  holds  up  to  admiration  is  something  that  will 
never  be  out  of  date,  however  much  the  world  may  progress.  Live  and  preach 
this  life  and  you  wdl  supply  to  the  nation  just  what  it  needs  at  the  present  junc- 
ture.' 

"  In  an  address  at  the  tenth  anniversary  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Tokyo,  Baron 
Mayejima  (a  former  member  of  the  Cabinet),  said,  'I  firmly  believe  we  must 
have  religion  as  the  basis  of  our  national  and  personal  welfare.  No  matter  how 
large  an  army  or  navy  we  may  have,  unless  we  have  righteousness  as  the  foun- 
dation of  our  national  existence  we  shall  fall  short  of  the  highest  success.  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  we  must  have  religion  for  our  highest  welfare.  And 
when  I  look  about  me  to  see  what  religion  we  may  best  rely  upon,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  the  one  most  full  of  strength  and  promise  for 
the  nation'"  {Annual  Report  of  the  Bible  Societies'  Committee  for  Japan,  1903, 

pp.   2f.). 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  419 

ten  cents  gold  a  day,  and  for  females  of  five  cents  gold.1  An  eco- 
nomic society  founded  on  the  secular  principles  of  Western  civilization, 
stripped  of  all  the  qualification  introduced  by  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity and  its  preservative  principles  is  painful  to  contemplate.  But 
it  is  before  Japan.2 

The  new  era  has  created  a  demand  for  a  new  type  of  moral  char- 
acter and  integrity.  Writers  on  Japan  often  allude  to  the  high  type  of 
honour  developed  under  the  old  feudal  society.  There  is  a  great 
measure  of  truth  in  such  representations,  just  as  in  admiration  of  the 
high  honour  and  principle  of  knights  and  Crusaders  in  Christendom. 
But  those  standards  of  honour  are  not  generally  accepted  now  and 
the  business  life  of  the  world  is  conducted  on  a  code  of  integrity  far 
more  exacting  and  lofty,  if  less  picturesque  and  fanciful.  And  no 
need  is  more  felt  in  Japan  than  the  need  of  such  integrity.  This  is 
the  testimony  of  the  entire  foreign  business  community  and  of  the 
best  natives.3  Now  unreliability  of  moral  character  can  only  be  rem- 
edied by  a  force  that  can  re-create  character.  But  "  the  old  religions 
being  practically  divorced  from  ethics  and  lacking  a  world-view  which 
justifies  itself  either  to  science  or  philosophy,  lack  the  requisite  sanctions 
and  are  consequently  quite  incompetent  to  do  this  needful  work."  * 
The  Japanese  are  agreed  that  the  need  exists,  whether  Christianity  is 
needed  to  meet  it  or  not.  The  papers  complain  of  the  looseness  of 
morals,  of  the  want  of  character,  of  "the  blow  that  science  has  dealt 
religion"  in  weakening  the  sanctions  of  the  old  faiths  and  supplying 
nothing  new.5  Baron  Iwasaki  in  a  recent  address  on  "The  Cure  of 
Current  Maladies  "  frankly  sets  forth  the  situation  : 

"  Simultaneously  with  the  reconstruction  of  our  social  orders  since  the  Restora- 
tion, the  former  system  of  morality  received  a  death-blow,  while  a  new  system  of 
manners  and  morality  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the  new  order  of  things  has 
yet  to  be  established.  Observing  the  way  in  which  our  men  of  affairs,  whether 
in  public  or  in  private  walks,  discharge  their  duties ;  and  remarking  how  they  ob- 
serve discipline,  how  they  conduct  themselves  in  public,  what  ideas  they  enter- 
tain as  to  honour  and  good  manners,  that  is,  studying  the  matter  from  all  possi- 
ble points  of  view,  it  must  unfortunately  be  admitted  that  the  good  moral  tone  of 

1  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  February  8,  1896. 

5  Norman,  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  pp.  389J;  Gulick,  Evolution  of 
the  Japanese,  Ch.  XXXV. 

3  Japan  Evangelist,  January,  1897,  P-  XI7- 

4  Christendom  Anno  Domini,   1901,  Vol.  I,  p.  309. 

6  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  10,  1897,  P-  38- 


420  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Old  Japan  has  altogether  disappeared.  What  we  have  thus  lost  in  the  process  of 
transition,  we  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  replacing  by  the  moral  tone  of  European 
countries.  Our  efforts  are  now  chiefly  directed  to  the  perfection  of  our  outward 
and  material  progress.  To  attempt  to  overtake  the  Occidental  countries  by  pur- 
suing such  a  policy,  would  be  as  foolish  as  to  try  to  go  east  by  turning  the 
horse's  head  to  the  west.     .     .     . 

"  To  expect  real  progress  in  this  way,  would  be  as  absurd  as  to  look  forward 
to  a  harvest  without  sowing  seeds.  You  will  now  easily  understand  me,  when  I 
say  that  the  ill-success  attending  many  of  our  recent  efforts  in  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial lines  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  lack  of  the  proper  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility on  the  part  of  the  men  charged  with  the  management  of  those  enter- 
prises.    .     .     . 

"  Our  country  has  maintained  a  unique  and  unsullied  existence  as  a  nation 
during  the  twenty-five  centuries  of  her  history,  the  last  thirty  odd  years  of  which 
have  been  rendered  memorable  by  a  surprising  progress  in  things  material.  But 
unless  we  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  nourishing  of  our  moralnature,  how  will 
it  be  possible  to  place  our  progress  on  a  sure  and  permanent  basis  ?  " 1 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  meet  the  unavoidable  necessi- 
ties of  the  new  situation  without  having  recourse  to  Christianity. 
Some  have  proposed  a  revival  and  adaptation  of  the  Confucian  eth- 
ics which  have  constituted  the  principles  of  most  educated  Japanese. 
Count  Matsukata  satisfied  himself  thus.2  In  explaining  the  general 
indifference  to  religion  among  Japanese  statesmen,  Count  Okuma  of- 
fered the  suggestion  that  the  whole  body  of  their  thought  was  imbued 
with  Confucianism.  But  at  a  time  when  Confucianism  has  broken 
down  completely  on  its  own  soil,  no  enthusiasm  can  be  got  up  for  its 
revival  elsewhere,  and  instead  of  being  able  to  command  attention  in 
Japan,  its  influence  there  is  doomed.  The  proposed  removal  of 
Chinese  literature  from  the  curriculum  of  the  middle  schools  and  its 
certain  decadence  of  influence  in  every  sphere  involves  sooner  or 
later  the  rejection  of  this  old  and  inadequate  basis  of  ethics  and  phi- 
losophy.3 

1  The  Japan  Times,  February  6th,  1903. 

2  Japan  Evangelist,  November,  1896,  p.  39. 

3"  It  is  worth  while,"  said  Dr.  Greene  in  the  paper  read  at  the  Tokyo  Confer 
ence,  from  which  I  have  several  times  quoted,  "  to  note  two  remarkable  ad- 
dresses delivered  in  the  early  summer  of  1895,  one  bv  Professor  Iyenaga,  then  of 
the  Keio  Gijiku,  Mr.  Fukuzawa:s  famous  University  and  later  of  the  Higher  Com- 
mercial School  of  Tokyo  ;  ami  the  other  by  Marquis  Saionji,  at  that  time  Minis- 
ter of  Education.  Professor  Iyenaga  maintained  that  deeds  like  the  attempted 
assassination  of  Li  Hung  Chang  could  not  be  treated  as  mere  sporadic  cases  of 
crime,  but  that  they  were  the  legitimate  result  of  the  defects  of  the  Confucian 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  421 

Shintoism  and  Buddhism  have  been  offered  in  all  emendations  as 
the  solution  of  the  difficulty.  At  the  beginning  of  the  new  era  the 
Government  made  an  attempt  to  fuse  the  two,  to  supply  the  religious 
sanctions  of  patriotism  and  morality.  And  repeatedly  since,  one  or 
the  other,  sublimated  and  made  as  much  as  possible  to  resemble 
Christianity  in  its  essential  principles  as  these  appeared  to  the  manip- 
ulators, has  been  offered  as  a  remedy  for  the  confessed  existing  evils, 
but  in  vain.  As  a  native  paper  declared,  "  Buddhism  has  reached 
the  height  of  corruption  and  has  no  influence  among  the  upper 
classes.  Shintoism  retains  only  a  feeble  influence."  Both  are  con- 
spicuous enough  and  hold  firmly  enough,  however,  the  faith  of  a 
great  mass  of  the  people,  but  both  have  shown  their  total  inability  to 
provide  for  the  necessities  of  a  situation  which  they  had  no  power  to 
create  or  to  prevent. * 

The  nation  has  tried  education  on  a  grand  scale,  with  no  ethical 
teaching  except  utilitarianism.2  The  result  has  been  inevitable  decay 
of  religious  faith,  of  which  "the  greatest  cause,"  as  a  Japanese  paper 
declares,  "  is  to  be  found  in  the  materialistic  principle  of  our  national 
education.  While  it  is  wrong  to  mix  up  religion  and  education,  it  is 
also  wrong  for  teachers  and  writers  of  text-books  to  affirm  that  there  is 
no  necessity  for  religion.  Such  an  assumption  brings  fearful  harm 
upon  the  nation.  ...  If  teachers  would  teach  the  necessity  for 
religion  instead  of  delivering  lectures  on  atheism,  it  could  not  fail  to 
greatly  benefit  the  children."  And  the  Shukyo  declares  that  the  ma- 
jority of  school-teachers  are  ignorant  of  what  true  religion  is  and  that 
accordingly  the  youth  of  the  country  are  being  educated  without  any 
knowledge  of  the  religious  ideal  in  life. 3  If  some  say  that  reverence 
for  the  Emperor  is  taught  as  well  as  materialistic  ethics,  it  may  be 
replied  that  even  granting  that  that  may  serve  to  feed  the  spirit  of 
patriotism,  there  is  nothing  in  the  repeated  reading  of  the  Imperial 
Rescript  on  Education  and  in  bowing  to  the  Emperor's  shrine,  that 
will  strengthen  the  weak  will  or  build  integrity  in  the  life. 

system  and  proved  its  incompatability  with  the  facts  of  modern  life.  The  Mar- 
quis Saionji  in  similar  terms  condemned  the  deficiencies  of  the  old  system  and 
indicated  that  his  administration  would  favour  a  broader  and  more  cosmopolitan 
view  of  social  obligations"  {Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  91). 

1  See  Eitel,  Three  Lectures  on  Buddhism,  p.  95. 

5  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  "  The  Educational  Department's  System  of  Ethics," 
July  8,  1889.  pp.  37S-381. 

3  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  10,  1897,  p.  37. 


422  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Realizing  the  need  of  something  more  than  the  slim  utilitarian 
ethics  of  the  schools,  repeated  attempts  have  been  made  to  devise 
some  ethical  system  which  would  be  congenial  to  the  national  tradi- 
ditions,  conciliate  the  prejudices  of  various  minds,  and  meet  the 
pressing  moral  needs  of  the  time.  Some  have  contended  that  the 
spirit  of  Bushido,  of  military  feudalism,  the  admiration  of  rectitude, 
courage,  benevolence,  politeness,  veracity,  honour,  loyalty,  would 
suffice. 1  The  common  view  among  the  more  intelligent  is  set  forth 
by  Dr.  Inouye  Tetsujiro  : 

"  One  of  the  results  of  the  free  intercourse  carried  on  in  modern  times  between 
different  nations  is  the  thorough  transformation  of  the  world.  Old  things  have 
passed  away,  as  far  as  advanced  countries  are  concerned,  behold  all  things  have 
become  new.  Is  religion  alone  to  be  left  behind  in  the  race  ?  Does  any  intelli- 
gent man  think  that  the  Christianity  and  Buddhism  that  satisfied  our  ancestors 
and  which  is  being  propagated  in  our  midst  to-day  is  in  touch  with  the  spirit  and 
the  tendency  of  the  present  age.  Belief  in  traditional  Buddhism  and  Christianity 
produces  feelings  and  opinions  that  are  out  of  sympathy  and  even  directly  antag- 
onistic to  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  age.  A  child  needs  toys.  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  are  toys  of  the  past.  (A'odomo  wa  omocka  wo  yo  sit,  Kiritsntokyo  to 
Bitkkyo  wa  kwako  no  omocha  pari.)  It  is  because  of  this  unsuitability  of  the  ex- 
isting creeds  for  the  use  of  educated  people  in  these  times  that  I  maintain  that 
we  need  a  new  religion.  I  don't  mean  to  pretend  that  the  establishment  of  a 
new  religion  would  entirely  destroy  existing  creeds.  Buddhism  and  Christianity 
would  still  be  followed  by  a  large  number  of  people,  but  the  more  progressive 
minds,  the  enlightened  among  mankind,  would  give  their  support  to  a  form  of 
faith  that  was  abreast  of  the  age  and  that  did  no  violence  to  their  scientific  belief. 
The  old  creeds  would  doubtless  be  accepted  by  the  uneducated  and  the  stagnant- 
minded,  but  the  leaders  of  thought  would  rally  round  the  new  standard. 

"  The  tendency  of  the  age  is  to  believe  in  what  is  world-wide  and  what  is  real, 
the  new  religion  proposed  would  be  no  more  than  an  instrument  for  giving  full 
expression  to  the  general  impulse.  Such  a  religion  would  of  course  reject  all  ex- 
isting articles  of  faith  as  possessing  no  inherent  authority  whatever.  Articles  of 
faith  drawn  up  in  one  age  are  not  binding  on  after  ages  in  any  way,  as  they  only 
embody  the  opinions  of  those  who  formulated  them.  A  living  faith  is  the  only 
thing  that  possesses  any  power  and  this  has  its  seat  in  the  heart  of  each  individual 
believer."4 

Others  have  drawn  up  new  decalogues,  like  that  of  the  Kodokai : 

1  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  1901,  Vol.  I,  291  ;  Nitobe,  Bushido,  the  Soul  of 
Japan;  Independent,  September  19,  1901,  Art.  "The  Hopes  of  Japan, "p.  221 1. 

8  From  an  abstract  published  in  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  February  8,  1902,  of 
an  article  by  Dr.  Inouye  Tetsujiro,  in  the  Tetsugaku  Zasshi. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  423 


<< 


1.  Be  loyal  to  the  Sovereign,  filial  to  parents,  and  reverence 
divine  beings. 

"  2.     Respect  the  Imperial  Family  and  love  your  country. 

"3.  Observe  the  laws  of  your  country  and  strive  to  promote  the 
national  interests. 

"  4.  Study  hard  in  the  pursuance  of  knowledge  and  be  mindful 
of  health. 

"5.     Devote  the  best  efforts  to  your  profession  or  vocation. 

"  6.     Make  a  peaceful  home  and  love  your  neighbours. 

"7.     Be  faithful  and  benevolent. 

"  8.     Take  care  not  to  injure  another's  interests.     Practice  charity. 

"  9.  Do  not  indulge  in  the  pleasures  of  drinking  and  debauchery. 
Make  no  unjust  gains. 

"  10.  As  to  religion,  you  may  believe  in  any  you  choose,  but  be 
careful  to  avoid  one  that  is  injurious  to  your  country."  1 

The  great  dream,  however,  about  which  Lord  Curzon  has  a  foolish 
word  to  say,2  has  been  of  a  universal  system  of  ethics  on  one  hand,  or 
of  a  special  nationalistic  system  on  the  other.  The  ultimate  fact 
simply  is  that  the  nation  has  no  system.  As  Mr.  Murata  Tsutomu 
wrote  in  a  recent  magazine  article,  comparing  the  course  of  events  in 
Japan  during  the  Meiji  Era  with  Italian  History  at  the  time  of  the 
Renaissance  :  "  In  Italy  the  time  of  the  Renaissance  politically  and 
morally  was  anything  but  bright.  The  unrest  caused  by  imbibing  so 
many  new  ideas  led  men  to  doubt  the  reliability  of  ancient  institu- 
tions and  rules  of  life.  This  experience  has,  as  regards  morality, 
been  repeated  here.  To-day,  it  would  be  hard  to  say  what  moral 
standard  controls  our  lives.     Some  appeal  to  Confucianism,  some  to 

1  Japan  Evangelist,  September,  1897,  pp.  332c 

2 « When  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  Baptists,  Evangelicals,  Lutherans, 
Church  of  England,  Methodists,  Reformed,  Russian  Orthodox,  Quakers,  Uni- 
tarians, and  Universalists  appear  simultaneously  upon  the  scene,  each  claiming  to 
hold  the  keys  of  heaven  in  their  hand,  it  cannot  be  thought  surprising  if  the 
Japanese,  who  have  hardly  made  up  their  minds  that  they  want  a  heaven  at  all, 
are  somewhat  bewildered  by  the  multiplicity  of  volunteer  doorkeepers.  Were 
the  ethical  teachings  of  the  Bible  to  be  offered  to  them  in  a  systematized  body  of 
precept  and  of  prayer  they  might  turn  a  willing  ear.  Nay,  I  doubt  not  that  a 
committee  of  Japanese  experts  would  undertake  to-morrow  the  codification  of 
the  moral,  just  as  they  have  already  done  that  of  the  civil  and  criminal  law ; 
and  that  they  would  turn  out  for  the  edification  of  their  fellow-countrymen  an 
admirable  synthesis  of  the  ethics  of  all  time.  Who  shall  say  whether  the  new 
Japan  may  not  yet  undertake  this  momentous  task  ?  "  (Curzon,  Problems  of  the 
Far  East,  English  edition,  p.  30). 


424  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

Buddhism  or  Christianity.  Others  still  more  equally  speak  of  the 
Nippon  Shugi  or  the  Imperial  Rescript  on  education  as  furnishing 
guides  to  life.  But  the  truth  is  Japan  is  at  present  without  a  standard 
of  ethics."1 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  Japanese  should  turn  to  some  readjust- 
ment of  their  own  systems,  or  to  some  other  ethical  device  rather 
than  to  Christianity,  as  a  religion.  On  the  heels  of  the  missionary 
proclamation  of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  West,  came  rep- 
resentations that  Christianity  was  already  an  antiquated  system 
even  in  the  West.  Agents  of  agnosticism,  personal  and  literary  in 
Japan,  and  the  speedy  perception  by  the  thinking  class  of  the  nation 
of  the  spread  of  agnosticism  in  the  West  led  to  the  idea  that  there 
was  something  in  advance  even  of  Christianity.  Count  Ito  had 
come  back  from  Germany  in  1885  as  the  Iwakura  Embassy  had 
come  from  the  West  in  1873,  with  deep  impressions  of  the  sincerity 
of  the  West's  belief  in  Christianity.  These  impressions  were  weak- 
ened by  the  growth  of  the  agnostic  and  positivist  influence  and  by 
the  study  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  of  the  national  actions  of 
Western  Governments.  The  Nippon  Shimbun  comments  on  the 
queer  notions  of  humanity  and  justice  displayed  by  the  West  towards 
China.  "  The  ethics  of  Westerners  are  to  the  Nippon  very  inex- 
plicable. It  proceeds  to  quote  Chwang  tze  against  the  European 
politicians.  The  sage  was  asked  whether  morality  existed  among 
thieves.  He  replied  much  as  follows :  '  Is  there  any  place  where 
morality  does  not  exist  ?  The  five  virtues  are  all  exemplified  by 
thieves.  In  perceiving  that  there  are  treasures  in  people's  houses, 
they  show  sagacity.  In  each  striving  to  be  first  to  get  into  a  house, 
they  display  courage.  In  striving  not  to  be  first  to  escape  from  a 
house,  they  show  a  regard  for  what  is  right.  In  determining  whether 
a  house  should  be  entered  or  not,  they  display  intelligence  and  in 
the  consideration  they  show  to  each  other  when  dividing  the  spoil, 
they  display  benevolence.  Without  these  five  virtues,  no  big  rob- 
bery could  succeed.'  This  applies  to  the  doings  of  Europeans  on  the 
neighbouring  continent.  ...  If  their  conduct  is  to  be  the 
standard,  a  pretty  low  level  will  be  reached."  2     And  Dr.  Kato,  dis- 

1  Abstract  in  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  August  26,  1899  ;  Japan  Evangelist,  June, 
1S99,  pp.  186-189. 
»  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  September  29,  1900. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  425 

cussing  the  "Evolution  of  Morality  and  Law,"  holds  that  the  ex- 
ample of  Western  states  shows  that  they  do  not  recognize  any  uni- 
versal ethical  principles  and  are  indeed  unqualifiedly  un-Christian  in 
their  dealings  with  alien  nations.1  It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that 
Japan  soon  qualified  the  representations  of  the  missionaries  and  con- 
cluded that  Christianity  was  not  indispensable. 

Yet  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  only  indispensable  now,  but  has 
played  an  indispensable  part  in  the  transformation  through  which  the 
country  has  already  passed.  There  are  many,  of  course,  who  deny 
this,  or  who,  if  admitting  the  influence  of  Christianity,  will  not  allow 
that  it  was  exerted  in  any  conspicuous  or  effective  way  through  the 
missionaries.  Dr.  Nitobe,  who  yet  declares  his  personal  belief  in 
Christianity,  explicitly  says :  "  Some  writers  have  lately  tried  to 
prove  that  Christian  missionaries  contributed  an  appreciable  quota  to 
the  making  of  New  Japan.     I  would  fain  render  honour  to  whom 

J"  The  Intuitionists  and  the  believers  in  a  fixed  order  of  nature  among  phil- 
osophers hold  that  in  their  dealings  with  each  other  men  of  all  nationalities  are 
bound  to  act  in  conformity  with  morality  and  law.  To  Utilitarians  this  demand 
seems  unreasonable.  Those  who  maintain  the  above-named  theory  are  of 
opinion  that  morality  and  law  of  universal  applicability  and  authority  exist.  But 
Utilitarians  do  not  accept  this  view.  They  hold  that  such  morality  and  law  as 
exist,  exist  for  the  sake  of  consolidating  and  benefiting  certain  States;  that  they 
have  no  authority  over  other  States,  being  in  some  cases  opposed  to  the  morality 
and  law  of  other  States.  Hence  it  follows  that  in  the  dealings  of  one  State  with 
another  interest  dictates  what  principles  of  morality  and  law  are  to  be  observed. 
In  actual  practice  to-day,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  the  invariable  following  of  an 
abstract  moral  principle  by  a  number  of  countries.  Just  as  no  society  can  exist 
without  the  observation  of  certain  rules  of  action,  so  in  international  dealings 
certain  principles  have  to  be  observed.  Their  choice  is  dictated  by  utility  and 
nothing  beside.  This  is  the  guiding  principle  of  modern  international  trans- 
actions of  all  kinds.  It  must  be  admitted  that  high  class  morality  would  require 
that  acts  which,  when  committed  against  one's  own  countrymen,  would  be  uni- 
versally condemned  as  bad,  should  be  considered  as  equally  bad  when  com- 
mitted against  foreigners.  But  no  such  code  of  morals  is  practiced  by  the  lead- 
ing nations  of  the  world.  On  the  contrary,  arbitrariness,  aggression,  injustice, 
cruelty,  oppression,  and  the  like,  all  receive  public  approval  when  alien  races  are 
the  subjects  under  treatment.  The  answer  to  the  question  which  forms  the  head- 
ing of  this  chapter,  '  Within  what  limits  are  morality  and  law  necessary  ?  '  is, 
their  use  is  confined  to  the  State  by  which  they  are  observed,  and  they  are  only 
to  be  used  vis-d-vis  foreign  States  in  so  far  as  interest  allows.  So  that  in  the 
matter  of  the  applicability  of  certain  maxims  and  codes  to  foreigners,  the  practice 
of  the  uncivilized,  who  have  no  respect  for  foreign  property  and  foreign  lives, 
and  that  of  the  highly  civilized,  who  feel  at  liberty  to  violate  all  the  maxims 
of  home  morality  in  dealing  with  alien  races,  occupy  the  same  position.  Each 
party  practically  denies  the  universal  and  impartial  applicability  of  law  and 
morality "  ( Article  on  "  The  Evolution  of  Morality  and  Law,"  The  Japan 
Weekly  Mail,  August  25,  1900;  see  also  Ecumenical  Conference  Report,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  53^ ;  The  Far  East,  Vol.  I,  No.  I,  p.  17,  February  20,  1896). 


426  Missions  and  Modern  History 

honour  is  due.  But  this  honour  can  hardly  be  accorded  to  the  good 
missionaries.  ...  As  yet  Christian  missions  have  effected  but 
little  in  moulding  the  character  of  the  New  Japan.  .  .  .  No,  it 
was  Bushido  pure  and  simple  that  urged  us  on."1  Some  mission, 
aries  would  be  very  modest  in  their  claims  here  who  yet  would  assert 
unequivocally  the  supreme  influence  of  Christianity  in  the  transfor- 
mation. "  In  Japan,"  says  one,  "the  new  life  and  energy  may  not 
have  come  so  directly  from  a  religious  source,  yet  they  have  come 
from  contact  with  Christian  nations  and  are  indirectly,  at  least,  the 
product  of  Christian  thought,"  2  and  another,  waiving  the  question 
of  the  influence  of  missionaries  in  producing  the  past  changes  is 
content  to  claim  that  the  obvious  fact  cannot  be  denied  that  Japan 
now  bases  her  laws  and  legal  and  other  practices  on  the  principles 
of  constitutionalism,  resting  on  two  fundamental  assumptions,  the 
worth  of  the  individual  and  the  universal  rule  of  reason  in  the  State, 
both  historically  and  essentially  the  product  of  Christianity.  "  Not- 
withstanding the  polytheism  and  superstition  of  millions  of  individ- 
uals," Mr.  Gulick  goes  on,  "the  intellectual  framework  of  the  state 
and  the  determinative  characteristics  of  the  entire  social  order  are 
Christian  in  substance  and  origin,  although  not  yet  recognized  as 
such  by  the  people. ' ' 3  Dr.  Gordon  does  not  claim  more  than  that 
Japan  is  largely  a  product  of  Christian  influences  of  which  missions 
were  but  one,  but  he  claims  for  the  direct  influence  of  Christian  mis- 
sions a  place  close  beside  that  of  Christian  civilization.4  It  would 
be  no  discredit  to  missions  in  Japan  if  their  influence  in  producing 
the  Meiji  transformation  had  been  slight.  They  did  not  go  to  Japan 
to  produce  a  revolution.  They  went  to  plant  a  life  in  the  people 
which  would  in  due  time  have  wrought  out  such  a  change  as  the  co- 
operation of  other  forces  with  missions,  even  obscuring  the  force  of 
missions,  has  produced  with  unexpected  and  wholly  unprecedented 
speed  and  thoroughness. 

At  the  same  time,  Christian  missions  and  missionaries  have  exerted 
an  appreciable  influence  of  indispensable  value.  They  raised  up  a 
body  of  men,  who  almost  from  the  beginning  as  pronounced  Chris- 

1  Bushido,  The  Soul  of  Japan,  p.  115. 

s  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  p.  98. 

3  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  /go/,  Vol.  I,  p.  292. 

*  An  Americati  Missionary  in  Japan,  pp.  228,  231. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  427 

tian  men   exerted  an  open    and  unmistakable  Christian  influence. 
There  are  about   120,000  Christians  in  Japan.     Including  children, 
whom  the  Protestants  do  not  report  as  church  members,  and  other 
adherents,  the  number  is  probably  about  225,000  or  one  half  of  one 
per  cent,  of  the  population.     Any  stranger  going  to  Japan  would  be 
impressed  at  once  with  the  place  assigned  to  this  small  body  in  all 
newspaper  discussions  of  the  moral  condition  of  the  country.     The 
respect  accorded  to  it,  the  demands  made  upon  it  and  the  influence 
it  exerts  are  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  size.     It  has  already  "  fur- 
nished one  cabinet  minister,  two  justices  of  the  national  Supreme  Court, 
two  speakers  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  Diet,  one  of  them  having 
been  four  times  elected;  two  or  three  vice-ministers  of  State;  not 
to  speak  of  several  heads  of  bureaux ;  judges  of  the  Court  of  Appeals, 
etc.     In  the  first  Diet,  besides  the  Speaker  ( Mr.  Nakashima) 1  the 
Chairman  of  the  Whole  and  eleven  other  members  of  the  House,  were 
Christians,  out  of  the  300  members  of  the  House,  nearly  nine  times  the 
normal  proportion.     In  subsequent  Diets,  the  proportion  has  never 
been  less  than  four  times  the  normal."    In  the  Diet  of  1900  besides  the 
speaker  thirteen  members  of  the  House  were  Christians,  and  among 
them  were  to  be  found  some  of  the  most  efficient  men  in  the  Diet. 
One  of  them  was  elected  in  a  strongly  Buddhist  district  by  a  majority 
of  five  to  one.     The  late  Mr.  Kataoka  Kenkichi,  four  times  Speaker 
of  the  Diet,   was  an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian    Church,  who  held 
prayer  meetings  in  his  house  over  parliamentary  questions  and  who 
repeatedly  refused  to  purchase  political  power,  which  he  subsequently 
acquired  without  such  purchase,  by  the  compromise  of  his  Christian 
faith.     At  his  death,  in  November,  1903,  the  Emperor  sent   1,000 
yen  for  the  funeral  expenses  and  20,000  mourners  were  about  his 
grave. 

In  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Liberal  Party  in  1899,  two  out  of 
the  three  members  were  Christians,  while  for  the  year  1900  the  ratio 
was  one  to  three  in  the  same  committee.  In  the  Army  there  are  said 
to  be  155  Christian  officers,  that  is  about  three  per  cent,  and  of  the 
Navy,  Mr.  Loomis  said  in  his  report  of  the  Bible  Societies'  Committee 
of  1900,  "  Eighteen  years  ago,  the  agent  of  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety went  to  one  of  the  Japanese  men-of-war — then  lying  in  the  har- 
bor of  Uraga  and  asked  if  he  could  bring  some  copies  of  the  Gospel 
1  See  sketch  in  Japan  Evangelist,  June,  1899,  pp.  172— 175. 


428  Missions  and  Modern  History 

on  board.  He  was  refused  permission  to  come  on  board  at  all.  The 
two  largest  battleships  in  the  Japanese  Navy  were  recently  under  the 
command  of  Christian  officers,  one  of  whom  is  an  Admiral."  The 
late  Admiral  Serata  was  a  Presbyterian  elder,  at  one  time  President  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Tokyo,  and  a  zealous 
worker  for  Christ  until  the  day  of  his  death.  Admiral  Uriu  who 
destroyed  the  Russian  ships  at  Chemulpo,  is  a  Christian.  "  Not  less 
than  three  of  the  great  dailies  in  Tokyo  are  largely  in  the  hands  of 
Christian  men,  while  in  the  case  of  several  others,  Christians  are  at 
the  head  of  departments  on  the  Editorial  staff."  *  This  dispropor- 
tionate influence  of  Christianity  was  seen  with  sharpest  clearness  and 
in  circumstances  which  proved  it  to  be  the  product  of  missions  in  the 
provincial  assemblies  at  their  organization,  when  the  Christians  held 
a  position  of  great  importance  and  contributed  towards  the  new  de- 
velopment of  Japan.2 

The  influence  of  Dr.  Verbeck,  however  forgotten  by  some  and  so 
modestly  exerted  that  it  was  unknown  to  many,  was  unquestionably 

1  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  pp.  95,  96. 

2  "  A  few  years  ago  the  central  Government,  doubtless  with  the  wise  purpose 
of  educating  its  people  in  legislative  processes,  instituted  legislative  assemblies  in 
the  difterent  prefectures  into  which  the  country  has  been  divided  since  1S71. 
These  assemblies  possessed  very  limited  powers  at  first,  the  limitations  being 
gradually  removed  as  they  gained  the  wisdom  of  experience.  To  these  local  as- 
semblies a  few  Christians  were  chosen,  and  it  was  found  that,  just  as  it  was  in  the 
formative  period  of  our  own  free  and  representative  Government,  the  best  prepa- 
ration for  the  legislator's  duties  had  been  the  preaching  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Gospel.  The  little  churches  of  Japan  had  been  schools  for  training  statesmen. 
To  speak  of  external  things  first,  the  deliberations  and  decisions  of  individual 
churches,  and  of  conferences  and  presbyteries,  were  a  most  valuable  training  in 
public  speaking  and  in  parliamentary  methods,  and  made  the  Christians  familiar 
in  a  most  practical  way  with  representative  institutions,  and  Government  by  ma- 
jority as  an  integral  part  of  them.  But  more  than  this  had  happened.  In  so  far 
as  their  minds  were  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  they  had  come  to  look  upon 
all  men  as  their  brothers  and  equals,  and  to  feel  under  a  constant  constraint  to 
labour  with  unselfish  devotion  to  make  men  better  and  happier.  In  other  words, 
Christianity  had  given  them  principles  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  methods  of  ac- 
tion. This  gave  them  immense  advantage  as  legislators  over  many  of  their  col- 
leagues who  had  neither  the  Christians'  moral  and  intellectual  training,  nor  the 
same  courage  of  their  convictions.  The  result  was,  that  the  Christians  almost  in- 
variably came  into  prominence  as  disinterested  and  capable  legislators.  The 
measures  for  the  public  weal  advocated  and  often  carried  to  a  successful  issue  by 
these  men  led  to  their  appointment  to  important  positions  in  these  local  assem- 
blies, and  indirectly  to  their  increase  in  numbers.  Thus  in  Gumma  prefecture, 
where  Christian  principles  had  been  most  ably  and  fearlessly  advocated  and  car- 
ried into  practice,  there  were  in  its  assembly,  a  year  or  two  ago,  nine  Protestant 
Christians,  including  the  chairman  and  vice-chairman,  out  of  a  total  membership 
of  sixty  "  (Gordon,  An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,  pp.  236^). 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  429 

effective  in  promoting  and  guiding  the  transformation.  If  he  had 
done  nothing  else,  he  would  have  done  enough  to  deserve  credit  for 
one  of  the  most  powerful  influences  in  producing  the  New  Japan  in 
his  proposal  of  the  Iwakura  Embassy,  to  his  friend  and  pupil  Okuma, 
in  1869.  That  Embassy  was  organized  according  to  Dr.  Verbeck's 
plans.  He  had  the  appointment  of  two  of  its  members.  He  laid  out 
the  route.  "There  is  a  tacit  understanding,"  he  wrote,  "between 
Iwakura  and  myself  that  I  shall  leave  the  outward  honour  of  initiat- 
ing this  Embassy  to  themselves.  And  who  cares  for  the  mere  name 
and  honour,  if  we  are  sure  to  reap  the  benefits,  toleration  and  its  im- 
mense consequences,  partly  now,  but  surely  after  the  return  of  the 
Embassy."1  Neesima  was  called  to  serve  on  this  Embassy  when  it 
reached  the  United  States.  It  was  a  new  opportunity  for  the  exer- 
cise of  Christian  influence  upon  its  members,  and  it  was  the  begin- 
ning of  Neesima's  great  career  as  a  maker  of  New  Japan.2  The  re- 
turn of  the  Embassy  to  Japan  had  all  the  consequences  that  Dr.  Ver- 
beck  had  anticipated.  It  was  followed  by  the  removal  of  the  edict 
boards  prohibiting  Christianity.  That  had  been  anticipated  by  Dr. 
Verbeck,  who  a  few  days  before  the  removal,  submitted  to  his  friend, 
the  Minister  of  Religious  Affairs,  a  "Rough  Sketch  of  Laws  and 
Regulations  for  the  better  control  of  Church  Affairs  in  Japan,"  an  an- 
ticipation of  the  Religions  Bill  of  1899.  The  return  of  the  Embassy 
was  followed  also  by  the  resolution  to  establish  an  educational  system, 
and  Dr.  Verbeck  was  called  upon  to  found  the  Imperial  University 
and  to  aid  in  educational  organization. 

In  innumerable  silent  ways  Dr.  Verbeck  helped  and  guided  the 
new  movement.  He  was  one  of  the  official  translators  of  the  Code 
Napoleon,  with  some  modifications,  the  law  of  the  Empire.  "How 
much  aid  he  rendered  the  politicians  of  the  Meiji  Era  in  carrying  out 
their  progressive  campaign,"  says  the  Japan  Daily  Mail,  "  we  cannot 
begin  to  estimate."  3  "  The  present  civilization  of  Japan  owes  much 
to  his  services,"  said  the  Kokumin  no  Tomo  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
"Of  the  distinguished  statesmen  and  scholars  of  the  present,  many 

1  Griffis,  Verbeck  of  Japan,  p.  262. 

2  Hardy,  Life  and  Letters  of  Joseph  Hardy  Neesmia,  pp.  n6f. 

3  Dr.  Edward  Abbott,  in  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Evening  Post  (December 
19,  1903)  quotes  a  remark  made  to  him  in  Tokyo  by  Colonel  Buck,  the  United 
States  Minister  to  Japan,  to  the  effect  that  the  result  of  his  observations  in  Japan 
was  that  Christian  missions  had  done  more  for  the  advancement  of  the  Japanese 
people  than  all  other  influences  and  forces  put  together. 


430  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

are  those  who  studied  under  his  guidance.  That  during  his  forty 
years'  residence  in  this  land,  he  could  witness  the  germ,  the  flower 
and  the  fruit  of  his  labour,  must  have  been  gratifying  to  him.  It 
should  be  remembered  by  our  people  that  this  benefactor,  teacher 
and  friend  of  Japan,  prayed  for  the  welfare  of  this  Empire  until  he 
breathed  his  last." 

Nor  was  Dr.  Verbeck  the  only  man  who  came  to  Japan  with  mis- 
sionary purpose  and  found  it  to  be  part  of  his  missionary  work  to 
help  to  create  and  mould  the  new  national  life.  Through  his  influ- 
ence, many  came  to  teach  in  the  Government  schools,  of  the  spirit  of 
President  Clark  who  refused  to  promise  not  to  speak  of  Christianity 
for  three  years,  declaring,  "It  is  impossible  for  a  Christian  to  dwell 
three  years  in  the  midst  of  a  pagan  people  and  yet  keep  entire  silence 
on  the  subject  nearest  his  heart."1  And  other  missionaries  like 
Dr.  McCartee  gave  unmistakable  assistance.  It  was  Dr.  McCartee  who 
guided  the  first  diplomatic  relations  of  the  new  era  between  China 
and  Japan,  and  he  helped  to  found  the  scientific  department  of  the 
new  University. 

A  great  service  was  rendered  by  the  missionaries  to  which  the 
West  gives  very  little  thought.  Mr.  Fukuzawa's  paper,  the  Jiji 
Shimpo  stated  this  service.  In  the  early  days  of  Japanese  intercourse 
with  foreigners,  it  declared,  "  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  seri- 
ous troubles  would  have  occurred  had  not  the  Christian  missionary 
not  only  showed  to  the  Japanese  the  altruistic  side  of  the  Occidental 
character,  but  also  by  his  teaching  and  his  preaching  imparted  a  new 
and  attractive  aspect  to  the  intercourse  which  otherwise  would  have 
been  masterful  and  repellent.  The  Japanese  cannot  thank  the  mis- 
sionary too  much  for  the  admirable  leaven  that  he  introduced  into 
their  relation  with  foreigners."'2  Count  Okuma  once  expressed 
frankly  his  opinion  of  European  character  as  seen  in  Japan  :  "  Com- 
paring Europeans  and  Japanese,  I  do  not  think  that  the  Europeans 
then  (thirty  years  ago)  in  Japan  were  a  particularly  high  class  of  per- 
sons ;  nor  do  I  think  that  those  here  now  are  particularly  high  class. "  3 
There  is  no  doubt  that  Japan  was  often  irritated,  almost  beyond  endur- 

^ee  Stock,  History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  Vol.  II,  p.  603;  Uchi- 
nmra,  The  Diary  of  a  Japanese  Convert. 
*See  Japan   Weekly  Mail,  May  21,  1898. 
3  Ransome,  Japan  in  Transition,  p.  60. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  ao\ 

ance  by  her  political  contact  with  the  West.  The  missionary  influence 
smoothed  over  and  conciliated  this  irritation.  "  I  once  said  "  Mr. 
Fukuzawa  declared,  "  that  if  no  missionaries  had  ever  come  to  our 
country,  the  dissoluteness  and  wantonness  of  foreigners  would  have 
come  to  be  much  greater  and  our  relations  to  foreigners  would  not  be 
what  they  are  now."  1 

It  will  suffice  to  quote  but  two  other  testimonies  from  outside  the 
mission  circle.  When  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hepburn  left  Japan  in  1892, 
after  thirty-three  years'  work,  the  Japan  Gazette"1  said  :  "We  may 
rest  quite  assured  that  it  was  the  daily  lives  of  Dr.  Hepburn  and  his 
fellow-workers  in  the  early  days,  which  moved  Japan  first  to  tolerate 
and  then  to  welcome  missionaries  to  these  shores,  and  it  is  to  the 
missionaries  that  Japan  owes  the  greater  part  of  her  present  advance- 
ment. The  missionary  has  been  Japan's  instructor,  an  influence 
wholly  for  enlightenment  and  good."  And  the  Japan  Mail*  said  : 
"No  single  person  has  done  so  much  to  bring  foreigners  and 
Japanese  into  close  intercourse.  His  dictionary  was  the  first  book 
that  gave  access  to  the  language  of  the  country,  and  remains  to  this 
day  the  best  available  interpreter  of  that  language.  But  even  more 
than  his  dictionary  has  helped  to  facilitate  mutual  acquaintance— his 
life  has  assisted  to  break  down  the  old  barriers  of  racial  prejudice 
and  distrust." 

For  years,  the  most  responsible  cause  of  Japanese  jealousy  and  ill- 
feeling  towards  the  West,  was  the  continuance  of  the  insult,  as  the 
Japanese  deemed  it,  of  the  extra-territorial  rights  of  foreigners. 
The  missionaries  alone  contemplated  with  approval  the  surrender  of 
these  rights.4  In  1891,  Dr.  Verbeck  deliberately  placed  himself 
under  Japanese  authority.  Commenting  upon  his  course,  the  Mail 
said  :  "  His  case  is  well  worth  the  consideration  of  those  who  so 
strenuously  object  to  the  idea  of  submitting  to  Japanese  jurisdic- 
tion. .  .  .  The  act  of  such  a  man  seems  to  us  more  eloquent 
than  the  talk  of  a  hundred  cavillers  who  raise  a  barrier  of  imaginary 
perils  in  the  path  of  free  intercourse."  While  many  missionaries 
doubtless  were  fearful  of  the  consequences  of  the  abandonment  of 

1  Ritter,  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan,  pp.  128L 

2  October  19,  1892. 

3  October  18,  1892. 

4  See  Twelfth  Report  of  the  Council  of  Missions,  p.  14. 


432  Missions  and  Modern  History 

extra-territorial  rights,  their  influence  as  a  whole  was  the  most  potent 
at  work  in  Japan  to  mollify  the  feeling  of  the  Japanese  that  the  re- 
tention of  these  rights  in  the  treaties  was  an  expression  of  distrust 
of  Japan. 

The  influence  of  the  Christian  propaganda  in  any  land  is  distinctly 
educative  and  democratic.  Visiting  Japan  in  1880,  Mrs.  Bishop 
(then  Miss  Bird)  perceived  this.  "Christianity,"  she  wrote,  "is 
destined  to  be  a  power  in  moulding  the  future  of  Japan,  I  do  not 
doubt.  .  .  .  It  is  tending  to  bind  men  together,  irrespective  of 
class,  in  a  true  democracy,  in  a  very  surprising  way."1  The  local 
congregations  were  training  schools  in  parliamentary  self-government 
and  the  new  doctrine  with  what  was  collateral  to  it  was  an  education 
in  liberty  and  progressive  institutions.  This  is  one  reason  why  there 
have  been  so  many  Christians  in  the  prefectural  assemblies  and  the 
Imperial  Diet. 

And  this  influence  of  Christianity  enduing  the  Christians  with 
power  has  endowed  them  also  with  principles.  The  Christian 
Church  has  been  the  only  great  influence  at  work  in  Japan  for 
purity.  That  is  one  thing  which  some  foreigners  do  not  greatly  stand 
for  in  the  East  and  one  of  the  chief  criticisms  upon  Buddhism  has  been 
upon  the  immorality  of  its  priesthood,2  while  Shintoism  with  its  ex- 
altation of  ancestor  worship  encourages  concubinage  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  family  line.3  Christianity  has  preached  a  doctrine 
of  purity  and  has  wrought  for  the  suppression  of  uncleanness.  "By 
Christian  influence  outside  and  inside  of  the  assemblies,  votes 
abolishing  licensed  vice  have  been  reached  in  the  seven  prefectures 
of  Kochi,  Tochigi,  Miyagi,  Kanazawa,  Kagoshima  and  Fukushima. 
.  .  .  In  another  prefecture  in  their  inability  to  secure  the 
immediate  passage  of  more  stringent  measures,  high  board  fences 
were  placed  before  every  disreputable  house  to  prevent  indecent  ex- 
posure." i  Missionary  influence  has  at  least  made  a  beginning  of  the 
destruction  of  the  slavery  of  prostitutes.  These  girls  have  been 
held  in  a  sort  of  legal  slavery  through  the  fact  that  they  were  easily 
kept  financially  indebted  to  their  owners  and  could  never  free  them- 

1  Young,  Success  of  Christian  Missions,  p.  164. 
8  Osaka  Conference  Report,  pp.  ioof. 

3  Hozumi,  Ancestor  Worship  and  Japanese  Law,  pp.  53ff. 

4  Gordon,  An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,  pp.  2381 ;  Cary,  Japan  and  its 
Regeneration,  p.  120. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  433 

selves.  Missionaries  at  last  secured  a  legal  judgment,  declaring  that 
the  women  could  leave  the  brothels  at  will,  even  though  still  owing 
money  to  the  proprietor,  but  the  decision  needs  to  be  made  "  effect- 
ive over  the  heads  of  the  police,"  as  the  Hon.  Shimado  Soburo 
expressed  it.1  This  victory  of  the  missionaries  broke  up  the  Yoshi- 
wara,  which  had  such  fascination  for  many  foreign  visitors,  fascina- 
tion far  superior  to  that  possessed  by  the  mission  work.  And  if  the 
army  of  prostitute  slaves  are  ever  freed  and  the  ideal  of  purity  ever 
established  in  Japan,  it  will  have  been  as  a  result  of  missionary  in- 
fluence almost  exclusively.2 

Indeed,  the  entire  philanthropic  work  of  Japan,  barring  the  Red 
Cross  Society,  which  owes  its  phenomenal  success  to  Imperial 
patronage,  is  practically  due  to  missionary  influence.  As  Dr.  Pettee 
said  at  the  Tokyo  Conference,  "  We  would  call  attention  to  the  fact 
not  that  it  (Christianity)  has  established  a  score  of  orphanages,  three 
leper  asylums,  three  rescue  homes,  three  asylums  for  the  blind,  three 
prison  gate  missions,  a  score  of  hospitals,  six  charity  kindergartens, 
three  homes  for  the  aged,  one  social  settlement,  and  at  least  200  poor 
schools;  but  that  within  a  lifetime  it  has  set  the  pace  for  all  forms 
of  practical  benevolence  and  stirred  a  whole  nation,  from  Emperor 
to  ex-eta,  to  take  an  interest  in  all  that  tends  to  elevate  and  purify 
society."  A  study  of  the  personnel  of  the  management  of  the  public 
charitable  institutions  not  under  the  control  of  the  churches  reveals 
the  fact  that  Christians  are  in  many  cases  the  leading  and  responsible 
men.3 

The  Christian  body  has  been  the  source  of  many  minor  reforms. 
It  has  striven  to  abolish  or  diminish  evils  connected  with  popular 
celebrations,  such  as  booths  for  immorality,  excessive  sale  of  liquor, 
street  dances  and  undue  license  to  dancing  girls.  The  anti-smoking 
bill,  prohibiting  the  smoking  of  tobacco  by  minors  under  twenty 

1  Tokyo  Conference  Report,  pp.  544f. 

2  "  In  the  Japan  Times,  Tokyo,  Mr.  Murphy  writes  as  follows  :  The  number 
of  licensed  prostitutes  in  Japan  at  the  end  of  December,  1902,  was  38,676,  or 
1,500  less  than  in  1901,  and  i3,Soo  less  than  1899,  the  year  before  our  work  was 
started.  The  number  of  geisha  (dancing  girls)  for  last  year  was  28,130,  a  re- 
duction of  nearly  two  thousand  from  the  year  before  "  {Missionary  Review  of 
the  World,  November,  1903,  p.  874). 

3  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  1901,  Vol.  I,  p.  302  ;  See  also  Census  of  Christian 
Charities  in  Japan,  February,  1897;  J-  H  Pettee,  Okayama  ;  Ritter,  A  History 
of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan,  pp.  361-391. 


434  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

years  of  age,  forbidding  its  sale  to  such  minors  and  fining  parents 
who  fail  to  prevent  their  minors  from  smoking,  was  introduced  by  a 
Christian  and  its  passage  secured  by  him,  with  the  support  of  non- 
Christians  in  the  Diet.1  But  the  great  reform  wrought  steadily  by 
Christians  has  been  in  the  interest  of  woman.  "  The  ladies'  societies 
and  schools  have  done  more  for  womanhood  in  Japan  than  any  other 
force,"  said  the  Japan  Mail  in  February,  1889,  "and  are  more  sought 
after  by  the  Japanese  authorities  and  people  than  any  other  elevating 
agency."  Woman's  place  in  Japan  was  distinctly  better  than  else- 
where in  Asia,  but  she  was  not  educated  and  was  held  as  inferior 
and  subject.  Obedience  was  her  supreme  virtue.  She  could  not 
hold  property,  must  be  ready  to  receive  her  husband's  concubine 
into  the  house,  and  could  be  divorced  practically  at  will.  As  Dr. 
Hozumi  contends,  the  traditional  Confucian  ideal  of  the  family  and 
consequently  of  woman's  place  abides  still  in  Japan,  and  the  census 
proves  as  much,  when  it  shows  that  divorces  are  to  marriages  in  the 
proportion  of  one  to  three.  How  the  Japanese  regard  the  matter  is 
frankly  set  forth  by  Dr.  Hozumi.  Enumerating  the  seven  grounds 
of  divorce  in  the  Taiho  Code,  sterility,  adultery,  disobedience, 
loquacity,  larceny,  jealousy,  bad  disease,  he  adds,  "The  reason  of 
sterility  being  made  the  first  ground  of  divorce  scarcely  needs  ex- 
planation. The  commentators  of  the  Taiho  Code  say  that  sterility 
here  does  not  mean  actual  barrenness,  but  the  failure  of  male  issue. 
The  marriage  being  contracted  for  a  special  object  and  that  object 
failing,  it  was  justifiable  to  dissolve  the  union.  A  man  was  in  fact 
under  a  moral  obligation  to  his  ancestors  to  do  so."  2  The  new 
code,  of  course,  introduces  changes  here  and  does  not  recognize  the 
old  ideal  of  family  preservation  in  the  male  line  for  the  purpose  of 
ancestral  worship,  but  it  opens  the  door  of  divorce  wide  enough, 
and  popularly  the  old  notion  of  woman  remains  save  where  Chris- 
tianity has  changed  it.3  In  the  churches,  women  and  men  meet  on 
an  equality.  The  husband  walks  home  side  by  side  with  his  wife. 
At  home,  the  spirit  of  Christianity  rules  the  household.  The  girls 
are  educated  with  the  boys.     The  mission  higher  schools  are  educat- 

1  The  And- Smoking  Bill,  translated  by  Tokeshi  Ukai,  Tokyo,  1900,  Methodist 
Publishing  House. 

3  Ancestor  Worship  and  Japanese  Law,  p.  54. 
3  Japan  Evangelist,  June,  1899,  p.  171. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  435 

ing  almost  as  many  girls  as  all  the  Government  schools  of  the  same 
grade.  A  totally  new  ideal  of  woman's  place  had  been  introduced. 
How  powerfully  the  work  has  been  done  was  shown  in  the  recent 
marriage  of  the  Crown  Prince,  which  was  a  real  marriage,  not 
merely  the  acquisition  by  the  Prince  of  a  piece  of  property,  the  bride 
insisting  upon  a  distinct,  personal  union,  such  a  union  as  rests  upon 
and  has  been  made  possible  only  by  pure  Christian  conceptions 
taught  to  Japan  by  the  example  and  in  the  doctrine  of  the  mission- 
aries. 

In  these  and  innumerable  other  ways,  the  work  of  missions  has 
played  its  part  in  the  renaissance  of  the  nation.  It  has  shaped  the 
thoughts  of  men  who  were  not  conscious  of  its  power  and  who  per- 
haps had  never  met  a  missionary.  "Not  long  since,"  wrote  Dr. 
Greene  in  1894,  "at  a  public  meeting  in  the  interest  of  one  of  the 
irregular  Shinto  sects,  a  speaker  had  much  to  say  about  the  Lord  of 
heaven  (Tentei).  This  sect  is  nominally  polytheistic,  but  here  he  was 
preaching  monotheism.  There  is  no  question  but  that  he  found  his 
monotheism  in  the  New  Testament.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  re- 
buked by  the  next  speaker  for  his  Christian  opinions,  but  this  very 
man,  confessedly  hostile  to  Christianity,  then  delivered  a  discourse 
on  sincerity  in  religion,  the  thought  of  which  was  really  taken  from 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  which  contained  several  almost  ver- 
batim quotations  from  the  sixth  chapter  of  Matthew.  Thus  men  in- 
imical to  Christianity,  illustrate  its  influence  upon  society  and  are 
directly  propagating  its  truths."  '  The  work  of  missions  has  checked 
the  impression  made  upon  Japan  by  our  military  propaganda  in  Asia 
and  has  in  a  measure  corrected  that  natural  but  erroneous  conception 
which  the  Eastern  people  have  of  the  West,  that  it  knows  no  right, 
no  mercy,  no  sincerity,  but  in  the  name  of  humanity  seeks  always 
and  remorselessly  its  own  interest.2  The  missionary  at  least  has 
sought  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and  the  principle 
of  his  life  has  been  not  gain  but  use. 

The  very  difficulties  which  confront  Christianity  in  Japan  are  only 
evidence  of  the  need  of  the  work  which  Christianity  alone  can  do. 
If  the  spirit  of  nationalism  has  fostered  a  desire  for  something  pe- 
culiarly Japanese  and  made  the  people  unwilling  to  accept  the  religion 

1  Outlook  for  Christianity  in  Japan,   p.  1 6. 

3  Ecumenical  Conference  Report,  Vol.  I,  p.  530. 


436  Missions  and  Modern  History 

of  the  West  without  a  radical  change  in  its  character  and  some  de- 
structive adaptation  of  it  to  Japan's  national  peculiarity  of  disposi- 
tion, on  the  other  hand,  Christianity  is  needed  to  save  the  spirit  of 
nationalism  from  excess  and  to  correct  with  broad  universal  sympathy 
the  tendency  to  insularity  in  religion  and  morals  and  philanthropy. 
The  nationalistic  spirit  is  not  peculiar  to  Japan.  It  has  awakened  in 
just  the  same  way  in  Western  nations,1  and  they  show  as  clearly  as 
Japan,  the  tendency  to  deal  with  fearless  hand  with  traditional  belief. 
The  need  of  Christianity  which  we  feel  here  for  our  own  salvation, 
exists  in  Japan  for  her  salvation  from  dangers  which  are  but  the  pro- 
jection into  her  life  of  our  own. 

The  difficulties  of  grasping  Christianity's  personal  conception  of 
the  individual  soul  and  of  the  personal  God  are  undoubtedly  great 
in  Japan.  As  a  young  Japanese  said  to  Dr.  DeForrest,  "I  can't 
understand  it,  and  it  is  not  only  I,  but  all  Japanese  are  so.  I'm  the 
president  of  a  young  men's  club  of  one  hundred  members  and  all  my 
friends  are  in  the  same  fix.  We  can't  possibly  understand  what  you 
foreigners  mean  when  you  say  God."  2  Where  there  is  not  a  vivid 
sense  of  personality  ;  where  the  national  education  for  centuries  has 
lacked  the  idea ;  where  there  are  no  birthdays  but  only  one  annual 
birthday  for  all  boys  and  another  for  all  girls ;  where  religion  has 
never  dreamed  of  reducing  itself  to  the  fundamental  issue,  "  God  and 
the  soul ;  the  soul  and  God  "  ;  where,  accordingly,  the  conceptions 
of  duty,  of  character,  of  moral  ideal,  the  sanctions  of  conduct  and 
the  consolation  in  death  which  are  woven  into  the  texture  of  western 
thought,  are  all  wanting,  it  may  be  harder  to  introduce  them,  but  it 
is  correspondingly  necessary.3 

The  supposed  unreliability  of  Japanese  character  is  alleged  by  some 
to  be  an  insuperable  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  Christianization  of 
the  country.  The  borrowing,  adapting  spirit  of  the  people 4  is  said 
to  be  due  to  a  racial  fickleness  which  forbids  all  hope  of  permanence 
and  reliability.     Even  among  Christians,  it  is  said,  character  can- 

1  Reinsch,   World  Politics,  p.  7. 

2  Missionary  Revimv  of  the  World,  September,  1899,  p.  692. 

3  See  Lowell,  The  Soul  of  the  Far  East  and  his  paper  on  "  Esoteric  Shinto  ; 
Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  Vol.  XXI,  pp.  106-135,  152-197, 
241-270,  Vol.  XXII,  Part  I,  pp.  1-26.  But  on  the  other  side  see  Gulick,  Evolu- 
tion of  the  Japanese,  Chs.  XXX,  XXXI. 

4  Japan  Evangelist,  October,  1896,  p.  3. 


The  Transformation  of  Japan  437 

not  be  produced  that  is  entirely  trustworthy,  and  appeal  is  made  to 
the  history  of  the  Doshiha.1  However  plausibly  this  may  be  put,  it 
is  not  true.  The  Japanese  have  moved  quickly,  but  not  too  quickly. 
The  very  quality  of  wise  assimilation  which  has  been  one  of  their 
chief  characteristics,  is  what  must  be  depended  on  to  carry  them  one 
step  further  to  an  acceptance  of  the  great  faith  from  which  have 
sprung  the  fruits  they  covet  and  by  which  alone  they  can  be  guaran- 
teed. That  there  are  defects  of  character  and  that  the  nation  as  a  whole 
is  as  a  lost  nation,  groping  its  way,  aiming,  as  the  Yorozn  Chohu  says, 
"at  a  definite  form  of  organization  without  the  life  that  organized 
it,"  accepting  the  Western  principle  of  individualism,  "  without  the 
spirit  of  holiness  that  binds  the  individual  to  the  Unseen  Father," 
is  only  to  say  that  the  work  of  the  Christian  missionary  is  needed, 
and  that  here  are  these  for  whom  the  Gospel  was  given. 

If  there  is  one  nation  in  the  world  to  which  more  than  to  another, 
the  Gospel  is  owed,  it  is  Japan.  We  have  given  her  some  of  its  in- 
direct results.  We  owe  her  its  full  power,  its  transforming  life.  We 
have  shown  her  again  and  again  the  evil  and  uncleanness  of  our 
Western  people.2  We  must  show  her  the  purity  and  holiness  of  our 
best  life.  We  have  poured  Western  destructive  criticism,  infidelity, 
barren  materialism  into  her,  destroying  old  ideals  and  leaving  her 
Shinto  shrines  deserted.  We  owe  her  the  firm  vitalizing  faith  and 
beauty  of  the  right  life,  related  in  all  richness  to  God  above,  and  in 
all  love  and  helpfulness  to  man.  We  have  taught  her  hands  to  war 
and  equipped  her  with  the  whole  infernal  enginery  of  destruction. 
We  must  teach  her  the  will  to  wait  and  to  suffer  wrong,  and  persuade 
her  that  service  is  a  nobler  thing  than  strife.  We  have  weakened 
her  old  religions,  and  yet  strengthened  them  by  the  imitation  of  our 
ways  so  that  they  can  pretend  to  offer  what  it  is  not  in  them  to  give. 
We  must  complete  the  work  by  letting  truth  conquer  half  truth  as 
well  as  error,  and  obliterate  the  twilight  in  the  dawn. 

No  charge  ever  laid  upon  the  Christian  Church  in  her  history  was 
more  solemn  than  this.  It  is  the  conflict  of  the  first  centuries  re- 
peated on  a  greater  scale  and  a  broader  stage  in  the  twentieth,  with 
all  of  Asia  awaiting  the  issue.  It  raises  the  old  questions,  "  How 
far  can  Christianity  mingle  with  and  assimilate  the  materialistic  and 

1  See  Davis,  "  Joseph  Hardy  Nessima,"  Japan  Evangelist,  May,  1898,  p.  146. 

2  Young,  Success  of  Christian  Missions,  p.  167. 


438  Missions  and  Modern  History 

pantheistic  philosophies  which  pass  under  the  name  of  religion  in 
Eastern  Asia  and  retain  even  a  name  to  live?  Yobutsu  sekken, — the 
question  of  the  coming  together  of  Buddhism  and  Christianity." 
How  stringently  must  Christianity  exclude  all  compromise,  all  liber- 
alizing and  loosening  of  her  doctrines  and  ideals  to  retain  her  power? 
How  much  power  will  an  inarticulate  and  tepid  Christianity,  such 
as  some  uphold  in  Japan,  and  as  many  are  drifting  to  at  home,  have 
to  arrest  the  attention  and  save  men  who  are  steeped  in  pantheism, 
such  as  have  no  definite  idea  of  God  or  of  immortality,  whose  moral 
muscles  are  flabby,  whose  hearts  are  blinded  by  the  God  of  this  world 
and  who  have  no  clear  conception  of  the  meaning  or  the  enormity  of 
sin  ?  '  And  for  us  there  is  another  question  more  pertinent  and  press- 
ing still.  Is  our  Christianity  so  true,  so  set  and  secure  in  self  assur- 
ance, so  earnest  and  genuine  in  its  outreachings,  so  calm  in  its  trust, 
that  it  greets  with  joy  the  supreme  test  it  is  to  receive  in  Japan,  and 
at  the  prospect  of  it  rejoices  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race  ?  * 

'See  Dr.  Davis's  article  "Some  Lessons  in  Japan,"  Advance,  March  II,  1897. 

2  A  friend  who  lived  for  some  years  in  Japan  and  who  has  read  this  chap- 
ter in  the  manuscript  writes  in  comment : 

"  There  is  only  one  criticism  I  would  pass  and  that  is  that  there  is  all  through 
the  chapter  an  assumption  of  a  deeper  and  profounder  change  in  the  nature  and 
life  of  the  Japanese  people  than  has  really  taken  place.  There  has  been  during 
the  past  forty  years  a  transformation  in  Japan  and  also  a  revelation  of  Japan. 
Much  that  seems  new  is  only  new  because  heretofore  unknown  and  what  seems 
to  be  transformation  is  only  in  fact  a  slight  readjustment.  Japan  has  exhibited  her 
ability  to  stand  on  terms  of  equality  with  Western  nations  and  seems  to  have 
suddenly  lifted  herself  above  her  Asiatic  neighbours.  The  fact  is  she  has  been 
their  superior  for  at  least  a  thousand  years.  Owing  to  the  gift  of  Christianity 
and  of  modern  knowledge  we  seemed  to  have  distanced  the  Japanese  during 
that  time  and  we  are  liable  therefore  to  assume  an  innate  superiority  but  I  some- 
times question  if  the  Spirit  is  not  working  up  better  raw  material  now  in  Japan 
than  He  had  when  He  moved  the  hearts  of  our  ancestors !  " 

But  this  judgment  of  the  past  superiority  of  Japan  over  China  is  at  least  open 
to  dispute,  and  as  to  the  depth  of  the  change  that  has  taken  place  let  the  reader 
study  Gulick,  The  Evolution  of  the  Japanese  or  the  Tokyo  Conference  Report, 


The  Armenian  Massacres 


IX 
THE  ARMENIAN  MASSACRES 

OF  all  the  stains  that  defaced  the  nineteenth  century  it  is 
doubtful  if  history  will  deem  any  comparable  in  disgrace 
with  the  toleration  by  Christendom  of  the  persistent  atrocity 
of  the  rule  of  Turkey.  There  are  many  who  suppose  that  the  Ar- 
menian Massacres  stand  out  alone  in  their  infamy,  but  they  merely 
gave  to  the  end  of  the  century  a  characteristic  Turkish  touch.  Each 
quarter  of  the  century  had  been  marked  by  at  least  one  such  butch- 
ery. The  first  was  the  murder  of  50,000  defenceless  Christian  sub- 
jects in  the  island  of  Chios  or  Scio  by  the  Sultan  Mahmoud  in  1822. 
"  The  Chiotes  had  always  been  the  gentlest,  the  most  docile,  the  most 
timid  of  all  the  rayas.  The  secret  societies  which  endeavoured  to 
rouse  the  Greek  people  had  not  even  deigned  to  initiate  these  islanders 
in  their  projects  of  national  resurrection.  .  .  .  The  inhabitants 
of  Chios,  in  order  to  give  new  guarantees  of  submission,  had  sent  to 
the  Turks  large  amounts  of  money,  numerous  hostages,  and  all  their 
arms  ;  even  the  little  knives  with  which  they  cut  their  bread  had  been 
taken  from  them."  On  Easter  Day  the  Turkish  fleet  of  seven  ships 
and  eight  frigates  came  down  upon  them.  The  simple  people  who 
had  fled  in  fright  at  the  sight  of  the  fleet  were  enticed  back  from  the 
mountains  by  assurances  of  safety  and  "by  sending  to  them  some 
Consuls  who  were  simple  enough  to  lend  themselves  in  good  faith  to 
this  ignoble  fraud."  Then  the  great  shambles  began.  "  The  ad- 
venturers had  come  in  great  numbers,  eager  for  their  prey,  at- 
tracted by  the  country,  so  rich  in  harvests,  in  gold  coin  and  in 
women.  .  .  .  They  slashed  and  burned  all  day ;  in  the  evening 
they  reckoned  up  the  price  of  the  slaves,  the  sheep,  the  goats,  all 
huddled  together  in  the  profaned  churches.  The  children  and 
women  escaped  death  and  were  led  off  in  long  troops  to  be  sold  in 
the  markets  of  Smyrna,  Constantinople  and  Broussa.  1 

1  Deschamps  in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  p.  167,  January  1,  1893;  Quoted  in 
Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  pp.  96-99. 

441 


442  Missions  and  Modern  History 

The  second  great  slaughter  was  in  1850  when  10,000  Nestorians 
were  butchered  in  the  Kurdish  Mountains.  After  9,000  had  been 
massacred,  "  1,000  men,  women  and  children  concealed  themselves 
in  a  mountain  fastness.  Beder  Khan  Beg,  an  officer  of  rank  in  the 
employment  of  the  Sultan,  unable  to  get  at  them,  surrounded  the 
place  and  waited  until  they  should  be  compelled  to  yield  by  thirst 
and  hunger.  Then  he  offered  to  spare  their  lives  on  the  surrender 
of  their  arms  and  property,  terms  ratified  by  an  oath  on  the  Koran. 
The  Kurds  were  then  admitted  to  the  platform.  After  they  had  dis- 
armed their  prisoners,  they  commenced  an  indiscriminate  slaughter, 
until  weary  of  using  their  weapons,  they  hurled  the  few  survivors 
from  the  rocks  into  the  river  Zab  below.  Out  of  nearly  1,000  only 
one  escaped."  1 

Only  ten  years  elapsed  before  the  next  horror,  when  in  i860, 
11,000  Maronites  and  Syrians  were  murdered  in  the  Lebanon  and 
Damascus.  For  the  massacres  in  Damascus,  Fuad  Pasha  executed 
120  military  and  civil  officials  and  fifty-six  citizens,  but  not  one 
"  Druze  or  Moslem  was  executed  for  the  cold-blooded  murders  of 
Deir  el  Komr,  Sidon  and  Hasbeiya."  2 

In  1876  came  the  Bulgarian  atrocities  which  Disraeli  dismissed 
with  light  incredulity  until  the  consular  reports  revealed  them  in  their 
full  hideousness.  "It  is  difficult,"  wrote  the  United  States  Consul 
General  to  the  Minister  at  Constantinople,  from  Philippopolis",  where 
he  had  gone  to  investigate,  "  to  estimate  the  number  of  Bulgarians 
who  were  killed  during  the  few  days  that  the  disturbances  lasted ; 
but  I  am  inclined  to  put  15,000  as  the  lowest  for  the  districts  I 
have  named  (Philippopolis,  Roptchus,  Tatar-Bazardjik). 
This  village  surrendered,  without  firing  a  shot,  after  a  promise  of 
safety,  to  the  bashi-bazouks  under  command  of  Ahmed  Aga,  a  chief 
of  the  rural  police.  Despite  his  promise,  the  arms  once  surrendered, 
Ahmed  Aga  ordered  the  destruction  of  the  village  and  the  indis- 
criminate slaughter  of  the  inhabitants,  about  a  hundred  young  girls 
being  reserved  to  satisfy  the  lust  of  the  conqueror  before  they  too 
should  be  killed.  Not  a  house  is  now  standing  in  this  lovely  valley. 
Of  the  8,000  inhabitants,  not  2,000  are  known  to  survive."  3 

1  Layard,  Nineveh,  pp.  24-201  ;  Quoted  in  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  99. 

5  The  Independent,  January  31,  1895. 

3  Quoted  in  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  p.  102. 


The  Armenian  Massacres 


443 


This  will  suffice.  Mention  might  be  made  of  the  slaughter  of 
2,000  Yezidees  in  Mesopotamia  near  Mosul  in  1892,  an  unknown  num- 
ber of  Armenians  in  1877  and  of  Cretans  in  1867,  but  it  is  needless 
to  multiply  such  stories  here,  in  view  of  what  we  shall  be  obliged  to 
consider.  It  is  enough  now  to  point  out  (1)  that  the  Armenian  mas- 
sacres are  not  an  exceptional  outburst  of  Turkish  fanaticism.  They 
are  exactly  what  the  history  of  the  century  proved  might  be  expected. 
No  plea  of  surprise  could  be  made  by  the  European  nations  in  de- 
fence of  their  failure  to  prevent  the  outbreak.  They  knew  or  ought 
to  have  known  what  was  sure  to  come.  (2)  All  these  massacres 
have  been  of  the  subject,  non-Moslem  people,  and  with  the  exception 
of  the  Yezidees,  of  Christians.  When  the  Turk  was  piqued  and 
wished  revenge,  or  when  he  became  apprehensive  of  the  growing 
prosperity  and  power  of  the  Christian  people,  he  turned  easily  and 
instinctively  to  massacre.  "  Nejib  Pasha,  who  was  installed  Gover- 
nor of  the  Pashalick  of  Damascus  on  the  restoration  of  Syria  to  the 
Sultan  in  1840,  declared  to  a  confidential  agent  of  the  British  Consul 
in  that  city,  not  knowing,  however,  the  character  of  the  person  he 
was  addressing,  '  the  Turkish  Government  can  only  maintain  its  su- 
premacy in  Syria  by  cutting  down  the  Christian  Sects.'  "  1  (3)  As 
this  remark  of  Nejib  Pasha's  indicates,  these  massacres  have  not  been 
unofficial  and  insurrectionary,  but  sometimes  planned  and  always  ap- 
proved from  Constantinople.  For  the  Bulgarian  massacres,  only  one 
man,  Ahmed  Aga  was  sentenced  to  death,  and  he  was  then  reprieved 
and  decorated  by  the  Sultan.  The  murder  of  the  Yezidees  was  con- 
ducted by  a  special  officer,  Ferik  Pasha,  sent  from  Constantinople 
with  absolute  authority.  The  whole  of  the  century  should  have  pre- 
pared Christendom  for  the  facts  of  the  Armenian  horror. 

But  who  are  the  Armenians  ?  The  word  now  describes  a  people 
not  a  country.  Armenia  is  a  term  roughly  used  to  denote  the  land 
where  they  are  found,  but  it  lies  in  Russia  and  Persia  as  well  as  in 
Turkey  and  other  people  reside  in  it  beside  Armenians.  "  Turkish 
Armenia — by  the  way,  '  Armenia  '  is  a  name  prohibited  in  Turkey — 
is  a  large  plateau  quadrangular  in  shape  and  60,000  square  miles  in 
area,  about  the  size  of  Iowa.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Rus- 
sian frontier,  a  line  from  the  Black  Sea  to  Mount  Ararat,  by  Persia 
on  the  east,  the  Mesopotamian  plain  on  the  south  and  Asia  Minor  on 
1  Churchill,  Druzes  and  Maroniles,  p.  222. 


\\\  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  west.  It  contains  about  600,000  Armenians  which  is  only  one- 
fourth  the  number  found  in  all  Turkey.  The  surface  is  rough,  con- 
sisting of  valleys  and  plains  from  4,000,  to  6,000  feet  above  sea  level, 
broken  and  shut  in  by  bristling  peaks  and  mountain  ranges,  from 
10,000  to  17,000  feet  high,  as  in  the  case  of  Ararat.  Ancient  Ar- 
menia greatly  varied  in  extent  at  different  epochs,  reaching  to  the 
Caspian  at  one  time,  and  even  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
during  the  Crusades."  It  included  the  Southern  Caucasus,  which 
now  contains  a  large,  growing,  and  prosperous  Armenian  pop- 
ulation under  the  Czar,  whose  Government  until  recently  allowed 
them  the  free  exercise  of  their  ancestral  religion  and  admits  them  to 
many  high  civil  and  military  positions.  "  The  Armenians  now  num- 
ber about  4,000,000,  of  whom  2,500,000  are  in  Turkey,  1,250,000 
in  Russia,  150,000  in  Persia  and  other  parts  of  Asia,  100,000  scat- 
tered through  Europe  and  5,000  in  the  United  States."  ] 

The  history  of  the  Armenian  people  runs  back  into  the  early  mists. 
Civil  and  political  institutions  took  definite  shape  among  them  from 
the  time  of  Tigranes  I,  who  began  to  reign  in  565  b.  c.  Tradition 
relates  that  the  knowledge  of  Christianity  was  first  brought  to  Ar- 
menia in  the  lifetime  of  Jesus  by  some  ambassadors  of  the  Armenian 
King,  who  had  come  to  Palestine  on  a  political  errand  and  had  there 
heard  of  Jesus  and  witnessed  some  of  His  miracles.  The  King  sent  at 
once  to  Jesus,  and  Armenian  tradition  declares  that  the  reference  in 
the  twelfth  chapter  of  John  to  the  visit  of  certain  Greeks  to  Jesus  is 
really  a  reference  to  the  visit  of  this  deputation  from  Abgar.  It  is 
further  claimed  that  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  Thaddeus,  one  of  the 
seventy  came  as  a  missionary  to  Armenia  and  the  King  and  his  peo- 
ple were  converted  and  baptized  and  a  great  church  erected  at  Edessa. 
Whatever  may  be  the  value  of  their  traditions,  it  is  certain  that  the 
Armenian  people  were  early  won  to  Christianity,  and  that  under  the 
influence  of  Gregory,  the  Illuminator,  the  nation  became  Christian  in 
the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  2 

The  hierarchical  system  of  the  Gregorian  or  Armenian  Church  "  is 
somewhat  similar  to  the  Greek,  culminating  in  a  patriarch  who  re- 
sides at  Constantinople,  but  who  is  himself  subordinate  to  a  still 
higher  ecclesiastical   figurehead    called   Catholicos,    who    resides   at 

1  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  pp.  44f. 

8  St.  Clair-Tisdall,  Conversion  of  Armenia  to  the  Christian  Faith,  passim. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  44 5 

Etchmiadzin,  in  Russian  Armenia,  and  claims  to  preside  over  the 
Armenian  Church  in  all  lands.  The  local  clergy  of  this  communion, ' ' 
says  Dr.  Riggs,  "  are  not  much  if  any  above  the  range  of  those  in  the 
Greek  and  Bulgarian  Churches  in  point  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
grasp  and  activity,  though,  perhaps,  on  the  average  a  little  more  in- 
telligent. Their  liturgy  also  is  in  the  national  language  and  was  in 
the  vernacular  when  it  was  first  adopted.  But  it  has  remained  un- 
changed from  the  fifth  century,  while  the  language  of  the  people  has 
undergone  a  gradual  but  very  essential  change.  Hence  the  people 
get  very  little  idea  of  what  is  being  chanted  and  intoned  in  the  serv- 
ice from  beginning  to  end.  This  fact  in  itself  gives  the  key  to  their 
spiritual  condition.  It  is  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation,  which 
for  the  individual  means  death.  And  the  characteristic  symptom  of 
this  condition  is  that  they  are  themselves  unconscious  of  it  and  to  a 
large  extent  lacking  in  desire  for  anything  better."  ■ 

The  separation  of  the  Armenians  from  the  Orthodox  Church  came 
through  the  annulment  of  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  by 
the  Armenian  bishops  in  the  sixth  century.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
the  Jesuit  missionaries  succeeded  in  separating  from  the  church  the 
Catholic  element  which  has  since  been  attached  to  Rome.  The 
Protestant  Church  among  the  Armenians  is  a  growth  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. It  was  no  part  of  the  purpose  of  the  missionaries  to  establish  it 
when  they  first  went  out.  When  Dr.  Perkins  and  Dr.  Grant  went  to 
the  Nestorians,  their  instructions  explicitly  stated  that  they  were  to 
have  in  view  as  the  object  of  their  mission  "(1)  To  convince  the 
people  that  they  came  among  them  with  no  design  to  take  away  their 
religious  privileges,  nor  to  subject  them  to  any  foreign  ecclesiastical 
control.  (2)  To  enable  the  Nestorian  Church,  through  the  grace  of 
God  to  exert  a  commanding  influence  in  the  spiritual  regeneration  of 
Asia."  These  principles  controlled  the  entire  American  missionary 
movement  among  these  Oriental  Churches  at  the  outset.  The  Prot- 
estant Churches  grew  up,  because  the  Gregorian  Church  excommuni- 
cated the  evangelical  element  which  resulted  from  the  labour  of  the 
missionaries. 

A  word  should  be  said  with  reference  to  the  Armenian  character. 

1  Grant,  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  Vol.  I,  pp.  496f. ;  See  Dwight,  Constanti- 
nople and  its  Problems,  pp.  1386°.:  also  Dwight,  Christianity  Revived  in  the  East 
Chs.  I,  IV. 


446  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

Sympathy  with  the  Turks  in  the  massacres  and  want  of  sympathy 
with  the  Armenians  in  their  sufferings  have  often  been  based  on  the 
view  that  the  Armenian  character  was  treacherous  and  unpleasant, 
and  that  the  people  deserved  what  they  got.  Dr.  Riggs'  statement  is 
that  of  one  who  has  long  known  the  people  and  who  would  tell  noth- 
ing but  the  exact  truth  about  them.  "It  is  perhaps  surprising,"  he 
Avrites,  "that  the  amount  of  flagrant,  open  crime  is  not  greater  than 
it  is,  but  their  standard  of  commercial  probity,  of  domestic  purity, 
and  of  public  duty  is  a  sadly  low  one.  Centuries  of  oppression  by  a 
race  of  unscrupulous  and  fanatical  conquerors  have  driven  them  to 
the  use  of  all  manner  of  subterfuge,  and  their  habitual  practice  of  de- 
ception has  had  a  most  baleful  influence  on  their  spiritual,  moral, 
social,  commercial,  domestic  and  personal  character.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  conserving  power  in  the  primitive  simplicity  of  Oriental  cus- 
toms, and  still  more  a  seasoning  grace  in  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  and  these  have  kept  these  people  from  the  lower 
depths  of  depravity  and  enabled  them  to  live  along  with  an  easy  go- 
ing forbearance  towards  their  neighbours  but  with  very  small  interest 
in  anything  outside  of  their  own  personal  advantage."  ' 

Yet  something  more  than  this  could  be  said.  The  Armenians  are 
energetic,  capable,  intensely  patriotic  in  their  love  of  their  national- 
ist or  racial  ideals,  and  shrewd  in  business,  so  that  they  have  been  the 
leading  bankers,  merchants  and  skilled  artisans  in  Turkey.  Perhaps 
Professor  Ramsay's  judgment  fairly  combines  the  diverse  elements. 
"  The  free  Armenian  is  not  unlike  the  Kurd  in  certain  characteristics. 
The  faults  to  which  both  tend  are  graspingness  and  selfishness,  in 
contrast  to  the  Greeks,  who  tend  rather  towards  the  faults  of  vanity 
and  display.  Both  free  Armenian  and  Kurd  cling  desperately  to 
their  freedom,  and  in  the  surroundings  of  the  Turkish  Empire  both 
were  unruly,  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Turkish  Government,  a  terror 
to  traders,  and  almost  a  bar  to  communication.  I  believe  that  the 
Kurd  is  just  the  Mohammedan  Armenian,  and  the  Armenian  is  the 
Kurd  passed  through  centuries  of  Christianity.  .  .  .  Yet  while 
it  is  true  that  of  all  the  races  with  whom  I  have  mixed  in  Turkey, 
there  is  none  that  I  have  personally  liked  less  than  the  Armenians, 
none  among  whom  I  have  found  so  little  interest  in  history,  none  to 
whom  I  owe  so  little  individual  gratitude  for  kindness  shown  to  a 
1  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  Vol.  I,  pp.  496f. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  447 

traveller,  and  a  guest,  none  who  have  so  often  treated  me  as  a 
stranger  whose  sole  interest  in  their  eyes  was  the  possibility  of  making 
money  off  him,  none  whose  character  has  seemed  to  me  generally  so 
bound  down  to  the  estimate  of  life  by  the  standard  of  money  alone, — 
yet  I  will  say  for  the  Armenians  that  they  have  furnished  the  most 
striking  examples  known  to  me  of  capacity  to  receive  and  assimilate 
and  rise  quickly  to  the  level  of  higher  education  and  nobler  nature, 
when  the  opportunity  has  been  placed  before  them  by  other  people. 
It  is  among  the  Protestants  that  these  examples  most  occur."  ! 

These  were  the  people  who  constituted  one  element  in  the  Arme- 
nian Problem,  and  who  were  as  sheep  in  the  great  slaughter.  Who 
were  the  butchers?  Some  would  answer,  "  The  Kurds,"  and  call  the 
massacres  after  their  perpetrators,  the  Kurdish  Massacres.  And  the 
Kurds  were  in  large  part  the  active  agents  in  the  matter.  The  re- 
sponsibility, however,  as  we  shall  see,  lay  back  of  them  upon  the 
Turk  and  above  all  upon  the  Turkish  Government,  and  many  of  the 
massacres  were  not  by  Kurds  but  by  Turks.  Still  it  is  necessary  to 
remember  the  Kurds  and  their  part  in  the  atrocities.  Professor  Sterrett 
speaks  of  them  as  "  an  inhospitable,  murderous  set  of  filthy  villains, 
who  still  preserve  all  the  ferocious  characteristics  of  their  ancestors, 
the  ancient  Kardouchoi,  of  whom  Xenophon  has  little  good  to  report  in 
the  Anabasis."  2  On  the  other  hand  Mr.  Greene  writes,  "The  Kurds 
are  naturally  brave  and  hospitable,  and  in  common  with  many  other 
Asiatic  races  possess  certain  rude  but  strict  feelings  of  honour.  But 
since  their  power  has  been  broken  by  the  Turks,  their  castles  ruined, 
and  their  chiefs  exiled,  these  finer  qualities  and  more  chivalrous  sen- 
timents have  also  largely  disappeared  under  the  principle  of  noblesse 
oblige  reversed.  In  most  regions  they  have  degenerated  into  a  wild, 
lawless  set  of  brigands,  proud,  treacherous  and  cruel.  The  traditions 
of  their  former  position  and  power  serve  only  to  feed  their  hatred  of 
the  Turks,  who  caused  their  fall,  and  their  jealousy  and  contempt  of 
the  Christians  who  have  been  for  generations  their  serfs,  whose  prog- 
ress and  increase  they  cannot  tolerate."3  Rough  and  cruel,  the 
race  has  qualities  of  great  strength,  with  capacities  of  real  usefulness 
or  infinite  degradation.     The  number  of  Kurds  is  very  uncertain,  but 

'Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  pp.  2l6f. 

s  Ibid.,  p.  117. 

3  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  p.  49. 


448  Missions  and  Modern  History 

it  is  estimated  that  there  are  about  1,500,000  of  them  in  Turkey  in- 
habiting the  same  section  of  country  in  general  that  is  occupied  by 
the  Armenians.  In  religion  they  are  loose  Mohammedans,  which 
makes  it  easy  for  them  to  act  with  Turks  against  Christians ;  in  dis- 
position they  are  restless  and  cruel,  which  makes  them  ready  instru- 
ments for  Turkish  cruelty,  and  despising  Christians  and  usually 
ready  for  violence  and  plunder,  no  proposition  could  be  more  accept- 
able to  them  than  the  proposition  which  was  as  actually  made  as  if  it 
had  been  put  in  writing  and  presented  formally,  namely  that  the 
Armenians  should  be  permanently  broken.  Left  to  themselves  there 
would  have  been  constant  rapine  and  brigandage,  but  no  such  whole- 
sale slaughter  as  only  the  Turk  could  have  devised  and  ac- 
complished. 

When  we  ask  about  the  character  of  the  Turk  who  is  thus  accused 
of  conduct  so  fiendish  and  diabolical,  we  meet  with  divergent  replies. 
"  There  is  no  finer  race  in  the  world  than  the  Turk  proper,"  writes 
one.  "Brave,  honest,  industrious,  truthful,  frugal,  kind-hearted  and 
hospitable,  all  who  know  the  Osmanli  speak  well  of  him.  He  is  as  much 
oppressed  by  the  curse  of  misgovernment  as  his  Christian  fellow  sub- 
jects. ' ' ]  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  in  Bulgarian 
Horrors  and  the  Question  of  the  East,  "  Let  me  endeavour  very 
briefly  to  sketch,  in  the  rudest  outline,  what  the  Turkish  race  was  and 
what  it  is.  It  is  not  a  question  of  Mohammedanism  simply,  but  of 
Mohammedanism  compounded  with  the  peculiar  character  of  a  race. 
They  are  not  the  mild  Mohammedans  of  India,  nor  the  chivalrous 
Saladins  of  Syria,  nor  the  cultured  Moors  of  Spain.  They  were, 
upon  the  whole,  from  the  black  day  when  they  first  entered  Europe, 
the  one  great  anti-human  specimen  of  humanity.  Wherever  they 
went,  a  broad  line  of  blood  marked  the  track  behind  them ;  and,  as 
far  as  their  dominion  reached,  civilization  disappeared  from  view. 
They  represented  everywhere  Government  by  force  as  opposed  to 
Government  by  law.  For  the  guide  of  their  life,  they  had  a  relent- 
less fatalism,  for  its  reward  hereafter,  a  sensual  paradise."2  The 
first  of  these  two  views  is  in  a  measure  true  of  the  Turkish  peasant, 
but  it  is  only  in  a  measure  true.     It  ignores  the  darker  side  of  his 

1  C.  B.  Norman,  Armenia  and  the  Campaign  of  iSjy,  pp.  158-9;  Quoted  in 
Greene,  pp.  85  f. 

'Quoted  in  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  p.  126. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  449 

character,  which  is  there  and  makes  it  impossible  to  call  him  the  fin- 
est race  in  the  world.  As  for  Mr.  Gladstone's  view,  that  also  is  true, 
but  it  is  a  view  rather  of  the  Turk  officially,  of  his  attempt  at  Govern- 
ment than  a  description  of  the  individual  Turk.  The  Turks  them- 
selves have  a  proverb  that  "The  Turk  is  a  decent  man  until  he  be- 
comes an  official  and  then  he  becomes  a  scamp."  l  Of  the  Turkish 
Government,  scarcely  anything  too  evil  can  be  said.  The  system  of 
taxation  is  suicidal.  As  a  British  Vice-Consul  wrote  from  Van  in 
1895,  "The  present  system  of  collecting  tithes  and  other  taxes  gives 
opportunities  for  endless  injustice  and  ill-treatment  of  the  villagers. 
I  am  continually  hearing  of  villagers  being  beaten,  maltreated,  and 
robbed  by  the  zaptiehs,  who  are  sent  to  collect  the  taxes,  and  the 
tithe-farming  system  notoriously  gives  rise  to  every  sort  of  extortion 
and  abuse.  The  villagers  have  absolutely  no  redress  against  either 
zaptiehs  or  tithe-farmers."'2  The  courts  are  rotten  and  untrust- 
worthy. Three  years  after  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  with  its  solemn  en- 
gagement on  Turkey's  part  to  introduce  reform,  the  British  Consul 
General  in  Anatolia,  the  region  of  Armenian  Turkey,  reported,  "There 
has  probably  never  been  a  time  in  which  the  prestige  of  the  Courts 
has  fallen  so  low  or  in  which  the  administration  of  justice  has  been 
so  venal  and  corrupt.  The  most  open  and  boundless  bribery  is 
practiced  from  highest  to  lowest ;  prompt,  even-handed  justice  for 
rich  and  poor  alike  is  unknown  ;  sentence  is  given  in  favour  of  the 
suitor  who  places  his  money  most  judiciously ;  imprisonment  or 
freedom  has  in  many  places  become  a  matter  of  bribery ;  robbers 
when  arrested  are  protected  by  members  of  the  Court  who  share 
their  spoil ;  a  simple  order  may  send  a  man  to  prison  for  months ; 
crime  goes  unpunished,  and  all  manner  of  oppression  and  injustice  is 
committed  with  impunity."  3  Here  and  there,  of  course,  there  are 
honest  and  upright  men,  but  the  whole  system  of  Government  and  of 
courts  is  corrupt  and  tyrannical.  The  supreme  trouble  is  misgovern- 
ment,  and  misgovernment  in  Turkey  is  not  like  misgovernment  else- 
where. It  is  sheer  lawlessness,  where  subject  peoples  like  the  Armenians 
are  the  victims  of  the  insolence,  the  lust,  the  avarice,  the  contempt, 

1  Bliss,  Turkey  and  the  Armenian  Atrocities,  p.  So. 

s  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896;   Correspondence  relative  to  the  Armenian 
Question,  p.  2. 
3  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  8  (1881),  p.  57,  No.  48. 


450  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  cruelty  of  the  foulest  Government  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the 
world  to-day.  It  is  the  Government  itself  which  is  the  curse  of  the 
country,  bleeding  it  through  the  system  of  taxation,  crushing  it  by 
oppression.  "  I  have  found,"  wrote  Professor  Ramsay,  "  everywhere 
and  among  all  kinds  of  the  Anatolian  people  and  all  religions  the  same 
belief — that  the  police  of  Turkey  are  the  centre  and  agents  of  disorder, 
misgovernment  and  injustice."  '  The  misgovernment  galls  the  Mo- 
hammedan peasantry  as  well  as  the  subject  Christians.  "  One  who  lives 
much  among  them  and  sympathizes  with  them,  as  I  have  done,"  Profes- 
sor Ramsay  says,  "comes  to  hate  the  Ottoman  Government  with  that 
fervent  hatred  which  I  feel,"  1  and  only  religious  fanaticism  keeps  this 
hatred  of  the  Moslem  subjects  for  their  Government  from  rendering 
impossible  cooperation  with  it  in  schemes  of  massacre  against  their 
fellow  subjects  of  the  Christian  faith.3 

The  oppression  and  heartlessness  of  the  Turkish  Government  must 
be  kept  constantly  in  mind.  American  ministers  come  back  with 
such  rose  water  reports  of  the  amiability  of  the  Sultan  that  we  need 
to  remember  that  his  land  is  a  murdered  land  and  that  he  is  the 
murderer.  It  is  a  murdered  land.  A  traveller  through  Eastern 
Anatolia  writes  in  a  recent  letter  about  what  he  saw  there.  "Every- 
where desolation,  ruin  and  want  stare  one  in  the  face,  from  the 
pinched  and  wrinkled  faces  of  the  people  that  abound  all  over  the 
cities  and  in  all  the  villages.  Withal,  the  taxes  are  collected  as 
remorselessly  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  In  fact  every  bit  of  tax 
taken  is  simply  a  letting  the  life  blood  of  the  people.  The  whole 
empire  is  a  wreck  and  one  only  wonders  at  the  vitality  of  a  people 
that  can  endure  so  far  and  still  exist."  And  this  picture  is  only  a 
superlative  account  of  conditions  that  have  existed  for  years.  Even 
where  there  was  the  appearance  of  prosperity,  the  corpse  of  Turkish 
tyranny  was  hidden  beneath.  And  the  Sultan  himself  is  in  a  real 
sense  responsible  for  the  present  condition  of  the  country  and  for  its 
continual  misgovernment.  When  he  came  to  the  throne,  and  for 
some  years  after,  the  West  looked  complacently  upon  him  and 
deemed  him  a  good  and  just  man.     Mr.  Cox  in  his  Diversions  of  a 


1  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  179. 

-  Ibid.,  p.  173. 

3  Wherry,  Islam,  p.  4. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  451 

Diplomat  is  representative  of  the  hypnotized  view  of  many  of  our 
American  ministers. 

"  Since  the  accession  of  the  present  Sultan,"  he  wrote,  "  it  is  apparent  that  his 
rule  has  permeated  the  Empire  with  a  wise  and  honest  sovereignty.  I  have 
observed  heedfully  much  of  the  progress  of  Turkey  during  the  last  three  dec- 
ades, and  from  what  I  have  seen  of  it,  I  believe  that  the  Sultan  being  himself  a 
Turk,  is  the  only  man  who  can  give  Turkey  the  proper  impulse  to  overcome  the 
vis  inerticB  of  her  laggard  progress,  so  as  to  bring  her  forth  into  the  light  and 
liberty  of  a  new  civilization.  If  you  question  the  ability  of  this  people  for  self- 
advancement,  look  for  the  inspiration  of  their  remarkable  race  and  rule,  and  you 
will  find  an  answer  in  those  rare  qualities  which  Gibbon  catalogued  when  he 
said, '  The  Turks  are  distinguished  for  their  patience,  discipline,  sobriety,  bravery, 
honesty,  and  modesty.'  It  is  because  of  these  solid  characteristics  and  in  spite 
of  the  harem,  in  spite  of  autocratic  power,  in  spite  of  the  Janissary  and  the 
Seraglio,  that  this  race  and  rule  remain  potent  in  the  Orient.  It  is  a  good  omen 
that  the  head  of  the  Turkish  Government  to-day  is  a  man  of  honest  intention 
and  clear  intellect,  and  that  he  gives  unremittingly  his  time  to  the  service  of  his 
people.  He  is  not  merely  an  amiable  and  humane  prince,  but  wisely  versed  in 
statesmanship.  His  heart  is  touched  by  suffering  and  his  views  lean  strongly  to 
that  toleration  of  the  various  races  and  religions  of  his  realm  which  other  and 
more  boastful  nations  would  do  well  to  imitate."  ' 

This  view  of  Mr.  Cox's  was  published  in  1887.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Sultan  has  changed  some  since,  but  it  is  more  probable  that 
Mr.  Cox  was  deceived.  "His  heart  is  touched  by  suffering!" 
"  His  views  lean  strongly  to  toleration  !  "  Let  the  wail  of  the  out- 
raged children,  the  blackened  ruins  of  2,000  villages,  the  streams  of 
blood  that  have  drenched  the  fields  of  Anatolia, 

"  the  unanswered  cry 
Of  virgin  souls  for  vengeance,  and  on  high 
The  gathering  blackness  of  the  frown  of  God," 

answer  such  folly.  Or  let  it  be  answered  by  lips  of  Turks.  Doubt- 
less this  judgment  is  extreme,  but  far  less  so  than  Mr.  Cox's.  It  is 
the  judgment  of  a  Turkish  official : 

"  By  degrees  the  Sultans  monopolized  the  Government  of  the  country,  and 
gave  it  the  form  of  a  despotism,  which  under  the  present  Sultan  has  reached  a 
degree  for  which  there  is  no  adequate  expression.  The  people  did  not  yield  to 
this  spoliation   of  their  rights,  without  many  protestations,  some  of  them  of  an 

1  Quoted  in  Latimer,  Russia  and  Turkey  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  356. 


452  Missions  and  Modern  History 

openly  rebellious  nature  and  entailing  great  bloodshed.  Gradually,  however, 
they  got  accustomed  to  the  tyranny  of  their  masters,  and  since  the  accession  of 
Abdul  Hamid,  their  resignation  has  assumed  the  aspect  of  debasing  abdication 
of  all  human  rights.  Simultaneously  with  this  absorption  of  power  by  the 
Sultans,  the  administration  of  the  country  grew  worse  and  worse,  until  it  became 
what  it  is  to-day,  a  sickening  and  shameful  parody  of  Government.  ...  A 
feeling  of  loathing  and  indignation  at  the  Sultan's  rule  is  very  noticeable  among 
the  Ulema,  the  new  generation  of  officers,  the  liberal  professions  and  the  lower 
ranks  of  the  administration  itself.  Unfortunately  owing  to  the  ignorance  of  the 
masses  and  the  diabolical  skill  of  the  Sultan  in  keeping  the  truth  from  them, 
they  are  only  very  gradually  awakening  to  the  fact  that  he  is  the  real  cause  of 
their  misery,  of  the  catastrophes  which  Turkey  is  daily  experiencing." 1 

From  the  Sultan  down  the  Turkish  Government  is  bad  and  in- 
capable of  reform.  As  Professor  Ramsay  says,  "Reform  and  im- 
provement are  quite  possible  in  Turkey  but  not  under  Turkish  rule," 
and  he  quotes  Hamilton's  judgment,  to  the  effect  that  "  Every  one 
must  feel  that  the  Turks  themselves  are  as  yet  incapable  of  that  high 
moral  energy  and  perseverance  in  the  path  of  duty,  which  are 
essential  to  the  accomplishment  of  any  moral  or  political  regenera- 
tion." 2  And  one  who  was  able  to  speak  out  of  a  full  knowledge  of 
Turkish  history  from  the  beginning,  Prof.  E.  A.  Freeman,  has 
written  a  yet  severer  judgment : 

"  The  power  of  the  Turk  is  something  purely  evil,  something  which  cannot  be 
reformed ;  it  must  therefore  be  dealt  with  as  one  should  deal  with  any  other  evil 
which  is  past  remedy.  The  great  mistake  of  all  European  powers  for  a  long 
time  past  has  been  that  of  treating  the  Turk  as  one  of  themselves  ;  of  speaking 
of  the  '  Ottoman  Government,'  « the  rights  '  of  the  Sultan  and  so  forth,  as  if  they 
were  speaking  of  and  dealing  with  a  civilized  power.  The  whole  course  of  the 
history  which  we  have  gone  through  shows  that  the  power  of  the  Turks  is  not 
a  «  Government '  in  the  sense  in  which  we  apply  that  word  to  the  powers  which 
bear  rule  in  our  civilized  nations.  The  Government  of  this  or  that  European 
country  may  have  great  faults  and  may  need  reform  in  many  ways ;  still  it  is  on 
the  whole  an  instrument  of  good.  It  discharges  the  common  duties  of  Govern- 
ment in  its  own  country,  and  in  most  cases  it  fairly  represents  the  nation  of  which 
it  is  the  head  in  the  face  of  other  nations.  We  may  therefore,  with  perfect 
truth,  speak  of  the  *  rights  '  of  such  a  Government,  even  though  we  may  think 
that  there  are  many  things  about  it  which  might  be  improved.  The  worst  that 
we  can  say  of  it  is  that  it  is  a  bad  Government  and  that  its  rule  is  misgovern- 

1  Contemporary  Review,  April,  1899,  Article,  "  The  Future  of  Turkey,"  pp. 
53'f- 

2  Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  169. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  453 

nient.  These  words  in  themselves  imply  that  it  does  in  some  sort  discharge  the 
functions  of  Government  and  that  by  needful  reform  it  might  be  made  to  dis- 
charge them  better.  The  worst  civilized  Government  is  not  a  thing  that  is 
purely  evil ;  it  is  a  good  thing  more  or  less  perverted,  but  which  still  may  be  re- 
formed. But  the  so-called  Turkish  Government  is  none  of  these  things  and 
does  none  of  these  things.  It  is  a  mistake  to  speak  of  it  as  a  Government  or  to 
speak  of  its  rule  even  as  misgovernment.  Its  fault  is  not  that  it  governs  badly, 
but  that  it  does  not  govern  at  all.  Its  rule  is  not  Government  but  organized 
brigandage.  Systematic  oppression,  systematic  plunder,  the  denial  of  the 
commonest  rights  of  human  beings  to  those  who  are  under  its  power  is  not 
Government  in  any  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  therefore  a  mistake  and  a  danger- 
ous mistake,  to  speak  of  the  Sultan  and  his  ministers  as  a  Government,  and  to 
treat  them  as  such.  It  is  a  mistake  to  speak  of  the  «  rights  '  of  the  Sultan,  for  he 
has  no  rights.  The  Turk  has  never  dealt  with  the  subject  nations  in  such  a  way 
as  to  give  him  any  rights  over  them,  or  to  bind  them  to  any  duty  towards  him. 
His  rule  is  a  rule  of  brute  force,  of  mere  brigandage.  It  makes  no  difference 
that  that  brigandage  has  gone  on  for  500  years.  While  other  conquerors  have 
sooner  or  later  made  their  conquest  lawful  by  giving  the  conquered  people  a 
Government,  the  Turk  has  never  given  the  nations  whom  he  has  conquered  any 
Government  at  all.  He  came  in  as  a  robber  and  he  remains  a  robber.  He  has 
no  rights  except  such  as  may  be  held  to  belong  to  a  man  who  has  broken  into 
the  home  of  another,  who  has  carried  off  his  goods,  laid  waste  his  fields  and  en- 
slaved or  murdered  his  children.  .  .  .  The  so-called  Turkish  Government  is 
not  a  Government  and  is  not  entitled  to  be  treated  as  one.  The  Sultan  has  no 
rights  and  is  not  entitled  to  claim  any.  .  .  .  His  rule  has  been  the  rule  of 
strangers  over  enslaved  nations  in  their  own  land.  It  has  been  the  rule  of 
cruelty,  faithlessness  and  brutal  lust ;  it  has  not  been  Government  but  organized 
brigandage.  His  rule  cannot  be  reformed.  While  all  other  nations  get  better 
and  better,  the  Turk  gets  worse  and  worse.  .  .  .  For  an  evil  which  cannot 
be  reformed,  there  is  one  remedy  only — to  get  rid  of  it.  Justice,  reason, 
humanity  demand  that  the  rule  of  the  Turk  in  Europe  should  be  got  rid  of,  and 
the  time  for  getting  rid  of  it  has  now  come."  l 

It  will  be  evident  from  what  has  been  said  that  the  problem  of 
Turkey  is  greater  than  the  mere  Armenian  Problem.  There  is 
the  problem  of  the  Turkish  Government  in  its  relation  to  Europe 
and  in  its  relation  to  its  own  Turkish  subjects  and  there  is 
the  problem  of  every  non-Moslem  race  or  people  incorporated  in 
Turkish  territory  and  absolutely  subject  to  the  Turk.  For  a  century 
the  Christian  powers  of  Europe  have  realized  that  they  had  a  re- 
sponsibility towards  these  subject  races,  so  far  as  they  are  Christian. 

1  Freeman,  The  Turk  in  Europe,  pp.  72-76,  97,  98. 


454  Missions  and  Modern  History 

In  1829  Russia  forced  Turkey  to  promise  reform  in  her  treatment  of 
Orthodox  Christians  and  in  the  same  treaty  of  Adrianople  secured 
the  acknowledgment  of  her  right  to  interfere  in  their  behalf.  Four 
years  later  by  the  treaty  of  Unkiar-Skelessi,  Russia  secured  the 
autonomy  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  which  were  to  pay  but  a  small 
tribute  to  the  Sultan,  and  thenceforth  no  Moslem  was  to  hold  prop- 
erty north  of  the  Danube.  In  1839,  feeling  the  need  of  European 
sympathy,  as  Ibrahim  Pasha  was  threatening  his  city,  Abdul  Med- 
jid  issued  the  Hatti  Sherif,  one  of  the  numerous  reforming  edicts  of 
his  reign,  in  which  he  promised  to  protect  the  life,  honour  and  prop- 
erty of  all  subjects  without  respect  to  race  or  religion.  In  1844, ' 
and  again  in  1855,  the  British  Ambassador  at  Constantinople  after 
the  execution  of  men  who  had  apostatized  from  Islam  to  Christianity, 
demanded  that  "  no  punishment  whatever  shall  attach  to  the  Mo- 
hammedan who  becomes  a  Christian."  The  Earl  of  Clarendon 
wrote  in  1855,  during  the  Crimean  War,  "  The  Christian  powers, 
who  are  making  gigantic  efforts  and  submitting  to  enormous  sacrifices 
to  save  the  Turkish  Empire  from  ruin  and  destruction,  cannot  per- 
mit the  continuance  of  a  law  in  Turkey  which  is  not  only  a  standing 
insult  to  them  but  a  source  of  cruel  persecution  to  their  co-religion- 
ists, which  they  never  can  consent  to  perpetuate  by  the  successes  of 
their  fleets  and  armies."  Inconsequence  a  Memorandum  was  agreed 
upon  in  1856,  declaring,  "As  all  forms  of  religion  are  and  shall  be 
freely  professed  in  the  Ottoman  dominion,  no  subject  of  His  Majesty 
the  Sultan  shall  be  hindered  in  the  exercise  of  the  religion  that  he 
professes,  nor  shall  be  in  any  way  annoyed  on  this  account.  None 
shall  be  compelled  to  change  their  religion."  2 

In  1876  came  the  Bulgarian  Massacres  and  Europe  interfered.  A 
conference  was  held  at  Constantinople  in  November,  at  which  the 
Turkish  diplomatists  at  first  tried  to  put  off  the  representatives  of  the 
other  powers  "by  the  announcement  that  the  Sultan  had  granted  a 
constitution  to  Turkey  and  that  there  was  to  be  a  Parliament  at 
which  representatives  of  all  the  provinces  were  to  speak  up  for  them- 
selves. There  was  in  fact  a  Turkish  Parliament  called  together. 
The  first   meeting  of  the  Conference  was  disturbed  by  the  sound  of 

1  Lane-Poole,  The  Life  of  Stratford  Canning,  Vol.  II,  Ch.  XVIII. 
3  Koelle,  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  pp.  474f. ;  Lane-Poole,   The  Life 
of  Stratford  Canning,  Vol.  II,  pp.  440-442. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  455 

salvos  of  cannon  to  celebrate  the  opening  of  the  first  Constitutional 
Assembly  of  Turkey."     This  was  all  buncombe  and  the  Parliament 
dissolved  as  soon  as  it  was  not  needed   to  bamboozle  Europe,  while 
the  Conference  itself  came  to  nothing  through  the  obstinacy  of  Tur- 
key, due  it  was  alleged   to  the  influence  of  England  which   partici- 
pated in  the  Conference,  but  behind  the  scenes  encouraged  Turkey  to 
resist  its  demands.     In  consequence  Russia  took  the  field  alone,  de- 
feated Turkey  and  in  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano  "secured  for  the 
population  of  the  Christian  provinces  almost  complete  independence 
of    Turkey."  1     The  fruits   of  the  war   to  Russia,  however,  were 
wrested  from  her  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  made  at  the  demand  of 
Great  Britain,  which  refused  to  assent  to  the  San  Stefano  arrange- 
ment.    It  is  needless  to  speak  of  this  matter,  shameful  and   unsatis- 
factory in  many  regards,  save  in  so  far  as  it  involves  the  Armenians. 
The   sixty-first   article  of  the   Berlin  Treaty   read,   "  The  Sublime 
Porte  undertakes  to  carry  out  without  further  delay,  the  amelioration 
and  reforms  demanded  by  local   requirements  in  the  provinces  in- 
habited by  the  Armenians,  and  to  guarantee  their  security  against 
the  Circassians  and  Kurds.     It  will  periodically  make  known  the 
steps  taken  to  this  effect  to  the  Powers  who  will  superintend  their  ap- 
plication."    It  was  found  after  the  Berlin  Congress  that  England 
had  gone  into  it  with  secret  engagements  already  made  with  both 
Russia  and  Turkey.     By  the  latter  "  the  English  Government  under- 
took to  guarantee  to  Turkey  her  Asiatic  possessions  against  all  in- 
vasion, on  condition  that  Turkey  handed  over  to  England  the  island 
of  Cyprus  for  her  occupation"   and  by  this  compact  England  be- 
came in  a  separate  and  special  way  the  guardian  of  the  rights  and 
lives  of  the  Armenians.     The  first  article  of  the  convention  declared, 
"  H.  I.  M.  the  Sultan  promises  to  England   to  introduce  necessary 
reforms,  to  be  agreed  upon  later  between  the  two  powers,  into  the 
Government  and  for  the  protection  of  the  Christians  and  other  sub- 
jects of  the  Porte  in   these  territories  (  Armenia)   and    in  order  to 
enable  England  to  make  necessary  provision  for  executing  her  en- 
gagements, H.  I.  M.,  the  Sultan  further  consents  to  assign  the  Island 
of  Cypress  to  be  occupied  and  administered  by  England . "  2     How 

1  McCarthy,    History  of  Our  Own  Times,  Vol.  II,  pp.  698,  699,  704. 

2  This  is  Mr.  Morley's  view  of  the  Cyprus  Convention:  "A  proceeding  by 
which  we  had  undertaken,  behind  the  back  of  Europe  and  against  the  treaty  of 
Paris,  to  establish  a  sole  protectorate  in  Asiatic  Turkey.     We  had  made  a  con- 


456  Missions  and  Modern  History 

England  repudiated  these  responsibilities  when  it  became  necessary 
to  fulfill  them  we  shall  see.  It  is  enough  now  to  note  the  emergence 
of  the  Armenian  problem  in  its  distinctness.  The  whole  problem 
has  been  discussed  at  such  length  because  there  will  be  more  develop- 
ments of  it  before  it  is  at  last  solved.  But  we  are  to  consider  now 
the  Armenian  problem  as  it  came  to  acute  expression  in  the  massa- 
cres of  1 895-1 896  alone. 

The  treaties  just  quoted  were  made  in  1878.  The  Bulgarian 
atrocities  had  been  avenged  by  Russia.  The  purpose  of  the  treaties 
was  to  secure  a  gradual  improvement  and  reform  and  to  make  sure 
that  no  such  horrors  would  be  repeated.  The  very  mention  of  the 
Armenians  indicated  where  Europe  feared  there  might  be  a  repeti- 
tion, and  where  accordingly  safeguards  must  be  provided.  The 
treaties  had  made  it  England's  special  duty  to  provide  these  safe- 
tract  of  such  impossible  scope  as  to  bind  us  to  manage  the  reform  of  the  judica- 
ture, the  police,  the  finances,  the  civil  service  of  Turkey,  and  the  stoppage  of  the 
sources  of  corruption  at  Constantinople.  The  load,  if  we  took  it  seriously,  was 
tremendous ;  if  we  did  not  take  it  seriously,  then  what  was  the  whole  story  of  the 
reform  of  Asiatic  Turkey  but  a  blind  to  excuse  the  acquisition  of  Cyprus?  " 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  mere  presence  of  the  military  consuls  in  Asia  went  a 
long  way  towards  redeeming  England's  obligation  so  far  as  interior  Turkey  was 
concerned. 

Mr.  Gladstone  strongly  condemned  the  course  of  Beaconsfield  and  Salisbury 
at  the  Berlin  Congress  and  also  the  Cyprus  Convention :  "  I  think  we  have 
lost  greatly  by  the  conclusion  of  this  Convention  ;  I  think  we  have  lost  very 
greatly  indeed  the  sympathy  and  respect  of  the  nations  of  Europe.  .  .  . 
Now,  I  am  desirous  that  the  standard  of  our  material  strength  shall  be  highly 
and  justly  estimated  by  the  other  nations  of  Christendom;  but  I  believe  it  to 
be  of  still  more  vital  consequence  that  we  should  stand  high  in  their  estimation 
as  lovers  of  truth,  of  honour  and  of  openness  in  all  our  proceedings,  as  those 
who  know  how  to  cast  aside  the  motives  of  narrow  selfishness,  and  give 
scope  to  considerations  of  broad  and  lofty  principle.  I  value  our  insular 
position,  but  I  dread  the  day  when  we  shall  be  reduced  to  a  moral  insularity. 
.  .  .  The  proceedings  have  all  along  been  associated  with  a  profession  as  to 
certain  British  interests,  which  although  I  believe  them  to  be  perfectly  fictitious 
and  imaginary,  have  yet  been  pursued  with  as  much  zeal  and  eagerness  as  if 
they  had  been  the  most  vital  realities  in  the  world.  This  setting  up  of  our  own 
interests,  out  of  place,  in  an  exaggerated  form,  beyond  their  proper  sphere,  and 
not  merely  the  setting  up  of  such  interests,  but  the  mode  in  which  they  have 
been  pursued,  has  greatly  diminished,  not,  as  I  have  said,  the  regard  of  our  ma- 
terial strength,  but  the  estimation  of  our  moral  standard  of  action,  and  conse- 
quently our  moral  position  in   the  world"  (Morley,  Life  of  Gladstone,  Vol.  II, 

PP-  577-579)- 

Mr.  Gladstone  described  the  Convention  as  "  filching  the  Island  of  Cyprus 

from  the  Porte  under  a   treaty  clause   distinctly  concluded    in  violation  of   the 

treaty  of  Paris,  which  formed  part  of  the   international  law  of  Christendom " 

(Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  p.  607). 


The  Armenian  Massacres 


457 


guards.     She  had  been  paid  an  island  for  doing  it.     As  Professor 
Ramsay  says  she  now  held  in  fact, 

"  The  Protectorate  of  Asia  Minor,  champion  of  the  Christians  in  Armenia, 
checking  by  a  system  of  military  consuls  the  administration  of  the  country.  The 
Porte  was  powerless  to  resist,  and  could  only  obey.  The  aspirations  and  hopes 
of  the  Christians,  in  whom  lay  the  real  strength  of  the  land  (except  in  open  bat- 
tle)— hopes  which  had  previously  rested  on  Russia — were  now  turned  towards 
England  as  having  guaranteed  good  government  for  them,  and  having  prevented 
Russia  from  undertaking  the  guarantee.  Britain  had  planted  herself  upon  all  the 
lines  of  development  in  the  country,  and  all  its  strongest  forces  were  pushing  her 
on.  A  new  department  was  created  ;  a  series  of  young  Consuls,  selected  by  com- 
petitive examination  annually,  went  out  to  Turkey  in  regular  course  to  learn  the 
language  of  the  country  before  beginning  their  official  work.  As  a  piece  of 
statesmanship,  crafty  and  unscrupulous,  but  able,  it  was  a  master-stroke ;  though 
I  think  no  one  among  us  will  ever  look  back  to  it  without  blushing  for  the  jock- 
eying by  which  it  was  effected.  .  .  .  The  only  way  in  which  Britain  could 
atone  for  the  cunning  that  had  given  her  so  strong  a  position  in  Asia  Minor  was 
by  using  that  position  for  the  advancement  of  civilization  and  the  benefit  of  the 
peoples  of  Asia  Minor,  just  as  she  has  used  her  position  in  Egypt.  The  advent 
of  the  Consuls  was  understood  by  all  to  be  in  reality,  what  it  was  in  name,  the 
inauguration  of  the  Protectorate  of  Asia  Minor ;  and  it  was  hailed  with  joy  and 
relief  by  almost  every  section  of  the  population,  except  the  officials.  The  Consul- 
General,  Sir  C.  Wilson,  was  a  man  who  combined  the  qualifications  of  knowledge 
of  the  East  and  good  judgment ;  he  was  ably  seconded,  and  for  a  time  all  went 
well.  Then  came  a  change  of  Government  in  England  and  the  Consuls  were  no 
longer  supported.  The  corrupt  officials  whose  degradation  they  had  insisted  on 
were  reinstated,  and  the  old  state  of  Turkey  was  resumed.  But  the  Consuls 
were  still  in  the  country,  and  their  presence  was  an  offence  to  the  Porte,  a  sign 
of  tutelage  and  subordination,  as  well  as  a  possible  danger  in  the  event  of  a  re- 
sumption of  active  policy  in  Turkey.  The  Egyptian  War  brought  an  oppor- 
tunity ;  the  Sultan  gave  his  authority  to  Britain  to  put  down  the  disorder  in 
Egypt,  and  the  Consuls  were  ordered  away  for  service  in  that  country.  I  have 
often  wondered  whether  the  second  fact  was  made  a  condition  of  the  first — not 
of  course  formally,  but  in  an  informal  way  which  could  be  disowned  in  case  of 
need.  .  .  .  Lord  Rosebery,  in  his  Edinburgh  speech  on  October  12,  1896, 
resigning  the  leadership  of  the  Liberal  party,  stated  that  the  military  Consuls 
were  recalled  in  1880,  or  very  shortly  after,  because  they  had  nothing  to  do. 
That  is  a  specimen  of  the  garbled  versions  of  facts  about  Turkey  that  our 
statesmen  seem  to  love.  The  Consuls  were  not  recalled  ;  they  were  ordered  to 
Egypt  on  special  service  in  August,  1882.  Their  power  departed  when  the  home 
Government  ceased  to  support  them  in  1880  ;  but  during  1879,  they  were  a  great 
influence  in  the  country,  and  their  presence  produced  profound  and  far-reaching 
results. 


458  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"  They  were  there  before  the  eyes  of  Moslems  and  Christians  alike,  a  continual 
reminder  of  the  overshadowing  power  of  the  great  Christian  kingdom  of  the 
West.  They  were  a  sign  to  the  people,  an  oincn  of  the  future,  «  casting  out 
devils  '  in  a  literal  sense,  for  where  a  Mohammedan  governor  was  found  by  them 
to  be  oppressive  beyond  the  average,  his  deposition  followed.  Now,  the  effect 
produced  in  Turkey  by  one  or  two  examples  is  wonderful ;  there  is  nothing  like 
it  among  the  more  stubborn  and  resolute  people  of  the  West.  Thus,  the  Consuls 
were  a  beacon  of  hope  to  the  oppressed  and  repressed  Christians  of  Eastern 
Turkey,  encouraging  them  to  crave  for  justice,  and  fostering  in  their  hearts  the 
inclination  to  demand  the  elementary  right  of  personal  safety  for  the  person  and 
the  family.  It  was  a  crime  of  the  deepest  dye  to  plant  this  hope  in  the  minds  of 
the  Armenian  Christians,  and  then  withdraw  from  the  position  in  which  alone 
we  could  help  them."  1 

But  Cyprus  was  not  returned  !  Having  got  in  advance  her  com- 
pensation for  the  trouble  of  protecting  the  Armenians,  England  ab- 
sconded with  the  pay,  leaving  the  Armenians  literally  to  go  to  that 
hell  which  the  Turk  was  already  preparing  for  them.  This  is  a  harsh 
saying  and  England's  position  was  unquestionably  trying  but  the  ob- 
ligation should  have  been  cleared  beforehand  or  discharged  when  it 
matured. 

For  the  massacres  when  they  came  were  only  the  full  development 
of  an  oppression  which  the  Armenians  had  been  suffering  for  years, 
and  from  which  Great  Britain  had  paid  herself  Cypress  to  deliver 
them.  It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  evidences  of  the  chronic  atrocity 
of  Turkish  rule  over  the  Armenians  under  the  present  Sultan,  Mr. 
Cox's  friend,  so  susceptible  to  suffering  !  the  amiable  host  of  Mr. 
Terrell 2  and  Mr.  Hopkinson  Smith,  and  General  Wallace,  and  the 
first  assassin  of  the  century.  There  has  been  constant  oppression  in 
taxation.     Taxes  have  been  collected.     No  receipts  have  been  given. 

1  Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  pp.  143-147. 

"  So  far  as  mere  outsiders  like  me  can  judge,  the  Ambassador  Extraordinary 
who  was  sent  to  Constantinople  with  special  and  unusual  powers  in  May,  1S80, 
Mr.  Goschen,  must  be  held  more  responsible  than  any  other  single  individual  for 
the  change.  He  was  considered  to  be  a  man  of  great  influence  in  his  party  ;  and 
had  he  understood  the  case,  and  resolutely  upheld  the  Consuls,  he  would  doubt- 
less have  carried  the  Government  with  him.  But  the  Consuls  were  a  creation 
of  the  outgoing  party  ;  and  their  success  was  not  likely  to  be  agreeable  to  the  in- 
comers. Moreover,  the  new  Government  did  not  wish  to  be  troubled  with  an 
active  policy  in  Turkey  ;  it  desired  to  be  quit  of  the  whole  business  as  easily  as 
possible,  and  with  the  smallest  amount  of  responsibility  "  (Ramsay,  Impressions 
of  Turkey,  p.  148). 

2  Art.  by  Mr.  Terrell,  "  An  Interview  with  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid,"  Century 
Magazine,  November,  1897,  pp.  I33ff. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  459 

Then  the  taxes  have  been  re-collected.  Crime  committed  without 
concealment  has  gone  unpunished,  Christians  fearing  to  make  com- 
plaint and  knowing  that  their  testimony  as  Christian  testimony,  and 
therefore  presumptively  false,  would  not  be  received  against  Mo- 
hammedans. The  life  of  the  people  was  perpetually  rent  by  injustice 
and  outrage.  In  June,  1893,  f°ur  young  Armenians  and  their  wives 
went  out  from  their  village  homes  about  two  miles  from  Van  where 
the  governor  resides  with  a  large  military  force,  and  were  picking 
herbs  together  on  a  hillside.  They  knew  the  perils  of  the  land  and  kept 
close  together.  A  band  of  Kurds  passing  by  in  broad  daylight  was 
attracted  by  the  appearance  of  the  young  women,  fell  upon  the  little 
party,  butchered  the  young  men,  outraged  the  young  brides,  mounted 
their  horses  and  rode  away.  The  next  day  the  villagers  brought  in 
the  four  bodies,  slashed  and  disfigured.  Yoking  up  four  rude  ox 
carts  they  placed  on  each  the  naked  remains  of  one  of  the  victims 
with  his  widow  sitting  by  his  side,  her  hair  shorn  off  in  token  of  her 
dishonour.  The  village  folk  marched  along  with  the  carts  in  grue- 
some procession  to  the  city.  They  bared  their  breasts  to  the  bayonets 
of  the  Turkish  soldiers  who  tried  to  turn  them  back  and  marched  on 
through  the  streets  of  the  city,  multitudes  of  Armenians  joining  them 
and  moving  without  tumult.  The  procession  passed  before  the  doors 
of  the  British  and  Russian  Vice-Consulates,  of  the  Persian  Consul- 
General,  the  Chief  of  Police  and  other  high  officials,  till  it  paused 
before  the  great  palace  of  the  Governor.  The  Governor  looked  out 
of  the  window  and  said  :  "  I  see  it.  Too  bad  !  Take  them  away 
and  bury  them.  I  will  do  what  is  necessary."  Within  two  days 
some  Kurds  were  brought  in,  among  whom  were  several  who  were 
positively  identified  by  the  women,  but,  upon  their  denying  the 
crime,  they  were  immediately  released.  Later  the  Governor  went 
out  to  the  scene  of  the  outrage,  and  finding  that  an  Armenian  monas- 
tery was  the  nearest  inhabited  building,  accused  the  priests  of  the 
murder,  pillaged  the  monastery  and  punished  the  venerable  old 
man  at  its  head.  '  This  incident  is  not  exceptional.  It  is  illustra- 
tive of  what  was  going  on  somewhere  among  the  Armenians  all  the 
time. 

In  1894  the  flood  burst.     In  April  a  missionary  wrote  :     "  There 

1  Related  by  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Greene,  M.  A.,  and  printed  in  part  in  The  Rule 
of  the  Turk,  pp.  631". 


460  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

is  no  computing  the  lives  that  are  going,  not  in  open  massacre  as  in 
Bulgaria — the  Government  knows  better  than  that — but  in  secret, 
silent,  secluded  ways.  The  sooner  it  is  known  the  better."  '  Many 
perceived  that  some  great  undertaking  was  on  foot,  but  no  one  real- 
ized the  horror  of  it  until  the  first  blow  fell  at  Sassoun.  The  doomed 
region  was  first  surrounded  so  that  no  foreign  eye  should  see  the  hor- 
rors to  be  enacted  there.  Government  troops  came  down  on  the 
region  and  the  Kurds,  against  whom  ostensibly  the  troops  were  to 
protect  the  villagers,  cooperated  with  them.  Small  companies  of  the 
troops  were  quartered  among  the  defenceless  people.  One  night 
about  the  middle  of  August,  the  butchery  began  and  lasted  about 
three  weeks.  "  The  Ferik  Pasha  who  came  post-haste  from  Erzingan, 
read  the  Sultan's  firman  for  extermination  and  then,  hanging  the 
document  on  his  breast,  exhorted  the  soldiers  not  to  be  found  want- 
ing in  their  duty.  On  the  last  day  of  August,  the  anniversary  of 
the  Sultan's  accession,  the  soldiers  were  especially  urged  to  dis- 
tinguish themselves,  and  they  made  it  the  day  of  the  greatest 
slaughter.     .     .     . 

"No  distinctions  were  made  between  persons  or  villages,  as  to 
whether  they  were  loyal  and  had  paid  their  taxes  or  not.  The  or- ' 
ders  were  to  make  a  clean  sweep.  A  priest  and  some  leading  men 
from  one  village  went  out  to  meet  an  officer,  taking  in  their  hands 
their  tax  receipts,  declaring  their  loyalty  and  begging  for  mercy ;  but 
the  village  was  surrounded  and  all  human  beings  put  to  the  bayonet. 
A  large  and  strong  man,  the  chief  of  one  village,  was  captured  by  the 
Kurds,  who  tied  him,  threw  him  on  the  ground,  and,  squatting 
around  him,  stabbed  him  to  pieces. 

"At  Galogozan  many  young  men  were  tied  hand  and  foot,  laid  in 
a  row,  covered  with  brushwood  and  burned  alive.  Others  were  seized 
and  hacked  to  death  piecemeal.  At  another  village  a  priest  and 
several  leading  men  were  captured,  and  promised  release  if  they 
would  tell  where  others  had  fled,  but,  after  telling,  all  but  the  priest 
were  killed.  A  chain  was  put  around  the  priest's  neck,  and  pulled 
from  opposite  sides  till  he  was  several  times  choked  and  revived,  after 
which  several  bayonets  were  planted  upright,  and  he  raised  in  the  air 
and  let  fall  upon  them. 

"The  men  of  one  village,   when   fleeing,  took  the  women  and 
1  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  p.  10. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  461 

children,  some  five  hundred  in  number,  and  placed  them  in  a  sort  of 
grotto  in  a  ravine.  After  several  days  the  soldiers  found  them,  and 
butchered  those  who  had  not  died  of  hunger. 

"  Sixty  young  women  and  girls  were  selected  from  one  village  and 
placed  in  a  church,  when  the  soldiers  were  ordered  to  do  to  them  as 
they  liked,  after  which  they  were  butchered. 

"In  another  village  fifty  choice  women  were  set  aside  and  urged 
to  change  their  faith  and  become  khanums  in  Turkish  harems,  but 
they  indignantly  refused  to  deny  Christ,  preferring  the  fate  of  their 
fathers  and  husbands.  People  were  crowded  into  houses  which  were 
then  set  on  fire.  In  one  instance  a  little  boy  ran  out  of  the  flames, 
but  was  caught  on  a  bayonet  and  thrown  back. 

"  Children  were  frequently  held  up  by  the  hair  and  cut  in  two,  or 
had  their  jaws  torn  apart.  Women  with  child  were  ripped  open  ; 
older  children  were  pulled  apart  by  their  legs. 

"The  last  stand  took  place  on  Mount  Andoke  (south  of  Moosh), 
where  some  thousand  persons  had  sought  refuge.  The  Kurds  were 
sent  in  relays  to  attack  them,  but  for  ten  or  fifteen  days  were  unable 
to  get  at  them.  The  soldiers  also  directed  the  fire  of  their  mountain 
guns  on  them,  doing  some  execution.  Finally,  after  the  besieged 
had  been  without  food  for  several  days,  and  their  ammunition  was  ex- 
hausted, the  troops  succeeded  in  reaching  the  summit  without  any 
loss,  and  let  scarcely  a  man  escape. 

"  Now  all  turned  their  attention  to  those  who  had  been  driven  into 
the  Talvoreeg  district.  Three  or  four  thousand  of  the  besieged  were 
left  in  this  small  plain.  When  they  saw  themselves  thickly  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  Turks  and  Kurds,  they  raised  their  hands  to 
heaven  with  an  agonizing  moan  for  deliverance.  They  were  thinned 
out  by  rifle  shots,  and  the  remainder  were  slaughtered  with  bayonets 
and  swords,  till  a  veritable  river  of  blood  flowed  from  the  heaps  of 
the  slain."  : 

About  the  middle  of  September  the  Sassoun  massacres  came  to  an 
end  and  there  was  a  momentary  lull.  At  the  lowest  estimate  10,000 
Armenians  had  been  slain.  But  this  was  only  the  beginning.  Other 
massacres  followed  as  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  England  would 
not  prevent,  and  that  the  other  Powers  would  not  interfere.  Left  to 
his  own  will,  the  Sultan  planned  more  and  worse.  Awakened  by  the 
1  Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  pp.  21-23. 


462  Missions  and  Modern  History 

taste  of  plunder,  Kurd  and  Turk  alike  leaped  to  the  gratification  of 
greed  and  lust,  while,  through  all,  the  religious  hate  of  Islam  furnished 
Sultan  and   subject  alike  with  the  highest  vindication  of  their  course 
of  infamous  crime.     There  were  eleven  massacres  in  October,  1895,  and 
ten  in  November,  and  it  was  estimated  at  that  time  that  20,000  Arme- 
nians had  been  killed  in  large  towns,  2,500  villages  destroyed  with  an 
unknown  number  of  villagers  murdered,  and  75,000  people  reduced 
to  starvation  in  the  large  towns  anil  350,000  in  the  villages.     All  this 
was  in  seven  Turkish  vilayets  in  Anatolia.     The  scenes  described  in 
the  Sassoun  massacres  were  repeated  everywhere.     At  Birejik  "  the 
soldiers  found  some  twenty  people,  men,  women  and  children,  who 
had  taken  refuge  in  a  cave.     They  dragged  them  out  and  killed  all 
the  men  and  boys,  because  they  would  not  become  Moslems.     After 
cutting  down  one  old  man,  who  had  thus  refused,  they  put  live  coals 
upon  his  body,  and  as  he  was  writhing  in  torture,  they  held  a  Bible 
before  him  and  mockingly  asked  him  to  read  them  some  of  the  prom- 
ises in  which  he  had  trusted."  l     A  case  similar  to  this  occurred  at 
Diarbekr  the  following  winter.     The  Armenians  had  taken  refuge  in 
the  church,  which  the  Kurds  fired,  throwing  firebrands  and  kerosene 
upon  the  people  and  shooting  into  the  defenceless  crowd.     As  they 
escaped  from  the  small  doorway  pastor  Jurjis  Khudhershaw  Antesho- 
lian,  a  graduate  from  the  Congregational  Mission  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  1868  was  at  once  recognized  by  his  beard  and  intelligent  face 
as  one  of  the  clergy  and  was  seized,   thrown  down  and  clubbed. 
One  of  the  books  which  had  been  scattered  about  by  the  marauders 
was  thrust  into  his  mouth  and  he  was  mockingly  called  upon  to  read 
the  church  service.     Firebrands  were  then  thrown  upon  him,  and  as 
restored  to  practical  consciousness  by  the  pain  he  began  to  crawl 
away,  he  was  clubbed  again,  drawn  back  and  burned  to  ashes. 2 

These  are  not  reports  of  irresponsible  or  prejudiced  people.  The 
British  Blue  Book  contains  statements  of  the  same  sort.3  Of  the 
massacres  at  Akhissar  it  says,  "  The  murders  were  committed  in 
the  most  inhuman  manner :  cudgels,  knives,  axes,  swords  and  fire- 
arms were  used.  Young  boys  helped  in  the  slaying.  Ropes  were 
tied  to  the  feet  of  the  dead,  and  the  bodies  were  dragged  through  the 

>  The  Independent,  March,  19,  1896,  p.  15. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896,  pp.  42,  68f. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  463 

streets  (leaving  clots  of  blood  on  the  stones  over  which  they  were 
dragged),  and  thrown  into  the  wells.  One  old  man  of  seventy-five 
years  was  tumbled  in  without  being  killed,  and  was  left  to  die  among  the 
corpses  of  his  friends."1  Of  Csesarea  the  reports  state,  "Women 
were  most  horribly  mutilated.  The  universal  procedure  seems  to 
have  been  to  insist  on  their  becoming  Moslems.  If  they  refused,  they 
were  cut  down  mercilessly — fairly  hacked  to  death  with  knives, 
sickles,  or  anything  which  came  handy.  The  young  women  were 
taken  c  ff  by  the  Turks  and  taken  to  Hasjilar,  an  adjacent  village. 
.  .  .  As  to  the  cause  of  the  outbreak,  the  Government  and  it  alone 
should  be  held  responsible."4  I  have  no  taste  to  multiply  these 
ghastly  tales.  But  it  is  necessary  to  say  enough  to  let  the  full  horror 
of  the  course  of  the  Turkish  Government  sink  into  our  imaginations. 
Can  any  one  read  the  simple  facts  without  feeling  that  she  whose  duty 
it  was,  was  appointed  of  God  for  vengeance  ? 

"  Heaped  in  their  ghastly  graves  they  lie,  the  breeze 
Sickening  o'er  fields  where  others  vainly  wait 
For  burial ;  and  the  butchers  keep  high  state 
In  silken  palaces  of  perfumed  ease. 
The  panther  of  the  desert,  matched  with  these 
Is  pitiful ;  beside  their  lust  and  hate 
Fire  and  the  plague  wind  are  compassionate 
And  soft  the  deadliest  fangs  of  ravening  seas. 
How  long  shall  they  be  borne  ?     Is  not  the  cup 
Of  crime  yet  full  ?     Doth  devildom  still  lack 
Some  consummating  crown,  that  we  hold  back 
The  scourge,  and  in  Christ's  borders  give  them  room  ? 
How  long  shall  they  be  borne,  O  England  ?     Up, 
Tempest  of  God,  and  sweep  them  to  their  doom." 

But  no  one  interfered,  and  for  two  years  Armenia  was  a  great 
slaughter-house.3    Its  sky  was  black  with  the  smoke  of  burning  vil- 

1  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  p.  70. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  261. 

3 "  The  actual  killing  was  concentrated  into  periods,"  writes  the  Rev.  F.  D. 
Greene.  "  Sassoun,  1894,  August  15-September  15  (about),  Then  no  massacre 
fora  year,  till  the  Constantinople  first  riot  started  them,  September  30,  1895,  when 
some  Armenians  insisted  on  presenting  a  petition  to  the  Grand  Vizier.  (See 
Greene,  The  Rule  of  the  Turk,  p.  27.)  The  bulk  of  the  massacres  took  place  in 
October-December,  1895.  Those  of  1896  were  few  and  scattered  and  due  to 
further  provocation,  as  in  Van  and  Constantinople,  by  Armenian  agitators.  It  was 
a  long  reign  of  terror  on  the  part  of  the  sufferers,  but  the  Turks  acted  with  a  de- 


464  Missions  and  Modern  History 

lages.  The  sobbing  winds  swept  through  the  valleys  laden  with  the 
wails  of  little  violated  maidens,  the  frightened  cries  of  little  children 
and  the  brutal  shouts  of  the  butchers.  The  Sassoun  massacres  had 
been  in  the  fall  of  1894.  The  massacres  had  never  ceased,  when 
Sir  Philip  Currie  wrote  placidly  to  Lord  Salisbury  on  November  29, 
1895,  that  in  a  long  and  pleasant  interview  with  the  Sultan,  the  latter 
assured  him  that  everything  had  been  done  to  restore  order,  and  tran- 
quillity now  reigned.1  On  the  following  day  came  the  massacres  at 
Caesarea,  absolutely  unprovoked,  in  which  1,000  innocent  Armenians 
were  killed,  and  this  was  followed  by  second  massacres  in  some  com- 
munities already  once  devastated  and  by  continued  petty  atrocity  over 
almost  the  whole  region  of  Anatolia  until  the  great  butchery  died 
away,  partly  of  surfeit,  partly  because  the  Sultan's  plan  was  fulfilled, 
in  the  summer  of  1896.2 

But  if  this  was  the  manner  of  the  ending  of  the  massacres,  what,  we 
may  now  ask,  could  have  been  their  causes  ? 

1.  The  one  supreme  fact  to  be  set  forth  is  the  guilt  of  the  Ottoman 
Government.  What  the  reports  to  the  British  Government  declare  to 
have  been  true  of  Caesarea  was  true  of  the  movement  as  a  whole.  "  As 
to  the  cause  of  the  outbreak,  the  Government,  and  it  alone,  should 
be  held  responsible.  The  Armenians  have  been  perfectly  quiet  from 
first  to  last  in  Caesarea,  and  never  gave  the  slightest  cause  for  disturb- 
ance. In  this  respect  Caesarea  has  been  quite  different  from  many 
other  places.  There  is  ample  evidence,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
Government  deliberately  gave  permission  for  plunder  and  murder  to 
continue  for  four  hours.  Soldiers  said  so  plainly  while  seated  here  in 
my  house.  The  soldiers  had  positive  orders  not  to  fire  on  the  rioters 
until  orders  to  that  effect  should  come  from  Constantinople."  3  And 
the  Vice-Consul  at  Van  wrote,  "  The  idea  of  Government  instigation 
is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Armenians  and  their  friends ;  many 
Kurds  have  declared  that  they  had  distinct  orders  to  plunder  the 
Christian  villages ;   and  though  their  statements  cannot  be  taken  as 

liberate  program  and  then,  as  a  rule,  stopped.  Of  course,  the  results  of  the  mas- 
sacres still  linger,  and  the  people  feel  like  a  rabbit  in  a  serpent's  cage.  The  Turk 
is  too  sluggish  to  raven  long  at  a' time." 

1  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896,  p.  200. 

2  For  full  accounts  of  the  massacres  from  American  sources  and  reports  to  the 
American  Government,  see  Foreign  Relations  of  the  United  States,  1895,  ^art  ^» 
pp.  1232-1471. 

»  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896,  p.  261. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  465 

proof  of  the  fact,  I  do  not  think  that  those  who  know  the  Kurds  of 
this  province  believe  for  a  moment  that  they  would  be  likely  to  start 
suddenly  on  such  a  general  movement  against  the  Christians  entirely 
on  their  own  initiative.  They  habitually  rob  the  Christian  villages, 
but  unless  moved  by  special  feelings  of  hostility  or  fanaticism,  it  is 
not  generally  their  policy  to  plunder  them  to  such  an  extent  as  had 
been  done  lately  ;  in  fact,  they  feel  that  it  is  contrary  to  their  interests 
to  ruin  the  Christians  entirely,  as  by  so  doing  they  kill  the  goose  that 
lays  the  golden  eggs ;  but  when  their  fanaticism  and  predatory  in- 
stincts are  aroused  by  those  in  authority,  they  are  naturally  not  slow 
to  give  vent  to  such  impulses.  It  may  be  remembered  that  at  Sas- 
soun  the  Kurds  were  set  on  first  against  the  Armenians,  and  it  was 
only  when  they  failed  that  the  Government  troops  took  the  matter  in 
hand."  x  The  Government  had  adopted  the  principle  of  diminishing 
the  importance  of  the  Armenians.  The  Sultan  had  acted  on  this 
principle  for  years.  He  now  prepared  to  give  it  a  further  and  more 
comprehensive  development  by  simply  crushing  the  Armenian  people. 
The  Armenians  were  justified  in  incorporating  in  the  great  petition 
which  they  tried  to  present  in  Constantinople  on  September  30,  1895, 
this  protest :  "  We  protest  against  the  systematic  persecution  to  which 
our  people  have  been  subjected,  especially  during  the  last  few  years, 
a  persecution  which  the  Sublime  Porte  has  made  a  principle  of  gov- 
ernment with  the  one  object  of  causing  the  Armenians  to  disappear 
from  their  own  country,  as  is  fully  proved  on  the  one  hand  by  the 
reports  of  the  Consuls  and  the  correspondents  of  European  news- 
papers, and,  on  the  other,  by  the  official  reports,  and  the  complaints 
which  are  constantly  being  addressed  to  the  national  Patriarchate."  2 
No  apology  can  be  made  for  the  Sultan.  He  knew  what  was  going 
on  in  Armenia.  He  was  responsible  for  it.  It  was  part  of  the  con- 
sistent policy  which  has  marked  his  reign  for  years,  even  if  not  from 
its  very  beginning.  The  massacres  were  committed  under  orders  for 
which  the  whole  world  and  God,  the  just  judge,  hold  Abdul  Hamid 
accountable.3 

2.     The  butchery  of  the  Armenian    nation  was  not  an  isolated 
caprice  of  the  Sultan.     As  I  have  just  said,  it  was  part  of  a  consistent 

1  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  p.  288. 
■  Ibid.,  p.  34. 

3  "  People  here  [Constantinople]  say  that  either  the  Sultan  is  entirely  controlled 
by  some  Palace  clique,  or  that  he  is  the  '  most  remarkable  man,'  because  all  the 


466  Missions  and  Modern  History 

policy,  the  policy,  namely,  of  the  revival  of  Orientalism,  of  the  stiffen- 
ing of  Islam,  of  the  overthrow  of  the  Western  and   civilizing   move- 
ment in  Turkey.     Soon  after  coming  to  the  throne  Abdul  Hamid 
began  to  dismiss  Christians  from  office.     Under  preceding  Sultans 
Christians  had  risen  to  positions  of  great  influence  in  Constantinople 
and  the  provinces.     Each   Governor  was  sure  to  have  one  or  more 
among  his  most  trusted  advisers  and  agents.     The  Sultan  put  an  end 
to  this.     Fifty  years  ago  there  was  some  hope  of  reform  in  Turkey. 
The  miserable  Crimean  war  did   for  a  time  create  in  Turkey  some 
feeling  of  gratitude  to  England.     Stratford  Canning  was  striving  to 
encourage  every  progressive  element  in  the  nation.     More  liberal  pro- 
visions were  made  for  the  work  of  missions  and  education.     The 
Hatti  Humayoun  of  February,  1856,  made  great  concessions,  declaring, 
"  My  Sublime  Porte  will  take  energetic  measures  to  insure  to  each 
sect,  whatever  be  the  number  of  its  adherents,  entire  freedom  in  the 
exercise  of  its  religion,"  and  "  No  subject  of  my  Empire  shall  be  hin- 
dered in  the  exercise  of  the  religion  that  he  professes."     The  present 
Sultan  set  himself  from  the  beginning  against  all  this.     The  West  had 
ample  notice  of  what  was  taking  place.     In  1886  the  missionaries  in 
Syria  and  Palestine  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  representatives  of  the 
Christian  Powers  in   Constantinople,  calling  attention  to  numerous 
specific  evidences  of  the  course  of  the  Government,  closing  with  the 
words  :    "  In  conclusion,  we  would  express  our  apprehensions  that  the 
inevitable  tendency  of  the  repressive  measures  of  the  Porte  will  be  to 
revive  Mohammedan  hostility  to  Christianity  throughout  this  vilayet, 
to  rekindle  fires  that  may  not  easily  be  extinguished,  to  reverse  the 
liberal  and  clement  policy  of  the  Sultan  Abdul  Mejid,  who  declared 
all  Ottoman  subjects  to  be  equal  before  the  law ;   to  gradually  ex- 
tinguish, if  persisted  in,  the  only  means  of  education  and  enlighten- 
ment open  to  the  Christians  of  Syria  and   Palestine,  and  finally,  by 
encouraging  Mohammedan  hatred  to  Christian  churches  and  schools, 
to  rouse  a  spirit  which  would  soon  become  uncontrollable  and  end  in 
a  repetition  of  the  scenes  of  i860."     The  fears  of  the  Syrian  mis- 
sionaries were  well  grounded.     They  have  described  here  the  delib- 
erate policy  of  the  present  Sultan.      He  is  a  reactionary,  an  absolutist, 

massacres  have  certainly  been  ordered  from  the  Palace,  and  yet  he  will  at  times 
express  the  most  humane  sympathies.  We  heard  that  our  Embassy  is  in  great 
dl-favour,  and  any  Turk  of  consequence  who  ventures  to  come  there  is  at  once  a 
marked  man"  (Harris,  Letters  from  Armenia,  p.  3). 


The  Armenian  Massacres  467 

"autocrat  to  a  degree  that  no  other  recent  Sultan  has  been,"1 
and  set  on  crushing  out  all  liberal  and  progressive  spirit  in  the 
Empire.2 

3.     Something  more  must  be  said  about  the  religious  aspect  of  the 
Sultan's  Orientalism.     Not  only  is  he  an  autocrat  hating  all  tendency 
towards  freedom  and   enlightenment,  but  he  is  a  Moslem  fanatic. 
Ambassadors  have  often  been  kept  waiting  while  he  sat  with  dervishes 
waiting  for  the  moment  of  ecstasy.     At  his  palace,  where  the  palace 
party  constitutes  his  real  Government,  a  Government  of  intrigue  and 
dishonesty,  distinct  from  the  Government  at  the  Porte — he  is  under 
the  constant  influence  of  Mohammedan  devotees,  or  men  who  believe 
in  the  Moslem  spirit  as  the  last  resort  against  the  movement  of  Chris- 
tendom.    For  years  the  Sultan  has  been  engaged  in  this  Moslem 
revival  which  some  think  was  due  to  the  defeats  of  the  Russian  war 
of  1877-78.     The  Mahdi  movement  in  Africa  and  many  other  im- 
pulses have  been  used  to  assist  it.     By  many  acute  devices  Abdul 
Hamid  has   been    working   to   awaken    the   ancient    Mohammedan 
spirit  as  a  spirit  of  intolerance,  of  hate  of  the  infidel.     The  recent 
troubles  in   Syria  date  back  ten   years  to  the  coming  of  a  certain 
Ramiz  Bey  from  Constantinople  to  overthrow  the  comparatively  peace- 
ful relations  of  Christians  and   Moslems  and  work  for  a  revival  of 
Mohammedan  fanaticism.     "  The  impression  made  on  myself,"  says 
Professor  Ramsay,  speaking  of  his  travels  in  Armenia,  "  and  on  bet- 
ter observers  has  been,  that  the  directors  and  preachers  of  the  faith 
in  Turkey  have  been  engaged  for  a  good  many  years  in  preparing 
the  Mohammedan  revival ;  the  means  whereby  Turkish  power  is  re- 
stored is  always  the  same — massacre — and  the  preparation  consists 
in  preaching  that  it  is  a  virtue  and  a  merit  before  heaven  to  slay  and 
spoil  the    infidels."3     And  this  whole  movement  was,  as  Ramsay 
points   out,  engineered    from    the   palace,   where   Mr.    Terrell   and 
General  Wallace  and  Mr.   Cox  were  falling  in  love  with  the  amiable 
and  tolerant  man  there,  so  sensitive  to  suffering  and  so  large-hearted 
in  his  kindliness  towards  all  his  people. 

How  real  this  religious  element  in  the  massacres  was,  the  account 

that  I  have  given  indicates.     Always  the  butchers  were  urged  on  by 

!  Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  140. 

8  See  The  Independent,  May  16,  1895,  PP-  ltf>  "On  Deviations  from  the   Hatti 
Humayoun  of  1856." 

3  Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  138. 


468  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  battle  cries  of  Islam  against  the  infidel.  "  God  is  great.  Vic- 
tory to  the  religion  of  Mohammed.  The  religion  of  Mohammed 
sprang  up  by  the  sword."  Constantly  the  victims  were  offered  de- 
liverance if  they  would  embrace  Islam  and  thousands  escaped  by 
doing  so.  The  movement  was  in  part  a  race  movement,  in  part  a 
political  movement,  but  in  larger  part  still,  so  far  as  the  perpetrators 
were  concerned,  a  religious  movement  for  the  glory  of  Islam  and  the 
destruction  of  the  infidel.  What  happened  at  Birejik  was  illustrative. 
Half  of  the  population  became  Mussulman  and  were  released.  The 
Armenian  Church  was  made  into  a  mosque  and  the  Protestant 
Church  into  a  mosque  school.  '  Vice-Consul  Hallward  wrote  from 
Van,  "  The  worst  accounts  I  have  heard  are  from  the  district  of 
Khizan  (Bitlis  Vilayet),  where  bands  of  Kurds  have  been  going 
round  the  villages  forcing  the  Christians  to  become  Moslem,  and 
killing  those  who  refuse.  In  some  cases  men  who  consented  to  be- 
come Moslems  were  obliged  to  kill  their  brothers  who  refused  to 
change  their  religion."2  Those  who  are  skeptical  about  the  asser- 
tion that  Islam  once  propagated  itself  by  the  sword,  have  only  to 
study  the  history  of  the  Armenian  massacres  or  to  visit  the  villages 
of  Anatolia  to-day  to  see  that  the  assertion  is  perfectly  true. 

The  spirit  of  intolerance,  of  hatred  of  unbelievers  enjoined  by  the 
Koran,  and  the  law  of  Islam  bidding  Moslems  to  humiliate  Chris- 
tians and  bring  them  low  were  made  use  of  by  the  Turk  in  plotting 
and  executing  the  policy  of  slaughter  among  the  Armenians. 

4.  The  Turk  had  been  angered  by  the  incessant  annoyance  of  the 
Foreign  Powers,  especially  England,  on  account  of  the  condition  of 
the  Christian  subjects.  "  The  idea  that  there  was  a  certain  class  of 
the  population  which  was  put  under  the  special  protection  of  a  Chris- 
tian and  therefore  an  infidel  state,  undoubtedly  brought  up  a  rank- 
ling sentiment  in  the  Moslem  mind."3  England  was  constantly 
complaining  to  the  Porte  of  the  abuses  in  Armenia.  Certain  reforms 
were  under  constant  discussion,  particularly  for  six  special  vilayets. 
At  last  the  Turk  got  angry.  He  could  not  revenge  himself  upon  Eng- 
land, so  he  took  it  out  upon  England's  wards.  The  policy  of  Eng- 
land instead  of  helping  the  Armenians  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the 

1  The  Independent,  March  19,  1896,  p.  15. 

2  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896,  p.  249. 

3  McCarthy,  History  of  Our  Oivn  Times,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  380. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  469 

incitements  of  the  massacres,  and  the  Sultan  smote  the  very  districts 
which  were  especially  concerned  in  the  proposed  reforms.  The 
shame  of  England's  position  was  made  tenfold  greater.  She  had 
created  the  feeling  of  special  vexation  with  the  Armenians.  When 
the  storm  broke  she  let  the  Armenians  bear  the  consequence  of  her 
interest  in  their  woes.  How  sincere  the  British  Government  was  in 
its  stipulation  in  the  convention  of  1878  with  Turkey  regarding  the 
Armenian  Christians  we  may  not  know.  The  feelings  of  the  English 
people  have  been  sincere  and  their  convictions  of  duty  clear  and  hon- 
ourable. But  the  British  Government  has  been  guilty  of  unfaithful- 
ness. Undoubtedly  the  situation  when  the  massacres  came  was  tangled 
and  difficult  but  if  Great  Britain  had  honourably  and  firmly  carried 
out  the  obligations  incurred  in  the  secret  convention  of  1878  she 
would  have  been  in  a  position  to  suppress  the  massacres. 

5.  Indeed  there  would  have  been  no  massacres  to  suppress.  I 
have  already  spoken  of  the  effect  produced  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
military  consuls  located  by  England  in  Anatolia  after  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin  and  essential  to  the  discharge  by  England  of  the  obligation 
undertaken  at  that  time  and  paid  for  by  the  island  of  Cyprus.  That 
withdrawal  was  a  tacit  declaration  to  Turkey  that  any  further  inter- 
vention in  behalf  of  the  Armenians  would  be  purely  verbal.  The 
issue  showed  this  to  be  the  case,  as  both  the  Armenians  and  the  Sultan 
understood  at  the  time.  It  is  hard  for  us  here  to  realize  the  signif- 
icance of  all  this.  A  consul  in  Asia  is  a  power.  Every  traveller 
must  be  impressed  with  his  influence.  An  Englishman  writing  of  a 
trip  through  this  region  in  1896  and  suggesting  possible  means  of  the 
improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  people  singled  out  this  immedi- 
ately. "  They  (the  consuls)  are  a  wonderful  protection  to  the  Chris- 
tian population  about  them,"  he  wrote,  "  both  against  acts  of  popular 
violence  and  against  official  neglect  of  their  wrongs."  '  When  Eng- 
land withdrew  the  consuls  needed  for  the  work  undertaken  by  her  in 
1878,  by  the  act  she  served  notice  on  the  Sultan  and  the  Armenians 
alike  that  she  left  the  Christians  to  their  fate.     But  she  kept  Cyprus. 

6.  These  and  the  forces  resident  in  the  national  characters  and 
governmental  conditions  described  at  the  outset  were  the  real  causes 
of  the  Armenian  massacres.  The  Turkish  Government,  however, 
naturally  had  another  explanation.     The  Marquis  of  Salisbury  wrote 

1  Cutts,  Christians  under  the  Crescent  in  Asia,  p.  341. 


470  Missions  and  Modern  History 

to  Sir  Philip  Currie  on  January  i,  1896,  regarding  an  interview  with 
the  new  Turkish  Ambassador  in  which  Costaki  Pasha  set  forth  the 
Turkish  explanation :  "He  insisted  that  a  dangerous  and  wide- 
spread conspiracy  has  existed  among  the  Armenians,  and  that  he  had 
himself  seen  the  papers  which  are  the  proof  of  it.  The  object  of  it 
was  not  the  improvement  of  the  Government  of  Turkey,  but  the 
erection  of  an  autonomous  Armenian  State,  which  in  the  existing 
distribution  of  the  population  was  an  obvious  impossibility.  This 
conspiracy  of  which  the  existence  had  become  known  and  which  the 
Imperial  Government  was  forced  to  repress,  had  roused  a  feeling  of 
bitter  resentment  on  the  part  of  the  Mussulman  population.  The 
result  was  a  struggle  which  amounted  to  a  civil  war,  and  it  was  un- 
happily matter  of  common  knowledge  that  in  all  civil  wars,  in  all 
ages  and  countries,  the  most  horrible  outrages  had  frequently  been 
perpetrated. ' '  This  was  the  way  Turkey  tried  to  break  the  force  of  the 
stern  condemnation  of  the  world.  Lord  Salisbury  was  not  deceived, 
however.  In  communicating  Costaki  Pasha's  apology  to  Sir  Philip 
Currie  he  wrote,  "  I  said  that  England  in  past  time  had  been  a  close 
friend  of  Turkey,  and  there  was  not  wanting  the  disposition  to  renew 
that  friendship  again  ;  but  that  so  long  as  blood  was  flowing,  and  the 
terrible  oppressions  were  continued  which  the  dominant  race  exer- 
cised over  the  weaker,  the  indignation  of  this  country  would  be  too 
strong  to  allow  the  people  of  England  to  be  reconciled  to  the  action 
of  the  Turkish  Government  by  any  consideration  of  a  political 
nature."  '  The  English  Government,  however,  which  Lord  Salisbury 
controlled  was  more  easily  reconciled  than  the  English  people  for 
whom  he  spoke,  but  whose  indignation  in  Lord  Salisbury's  voice  did 
not  terrify  Costaki  Pasha. 

At  the  same  time  there  was  enough  truth  in  what  the  Turkish  Am- 
bassador had  said  to  furnish  his  Government  with  this  excuse  for  its 
actions.  There  had  been  in  existence  for  some  years  among  the  Ar- 
menians an  organization  whose  purpose  was  to  develop  the  national- 
ist feeling  among  the  people  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  in 
whatever  way  might  be  necessary,  arouse  the  European  Governments 
to  some  such  action  in  their  behalf  as  Russia  had  performed  for  the 
Bulgarians.  The  great  mass  of  the  nation  had  nothing  to  do  with 
any  such  movement.  Most  of  its  intelligent  men,  while  desiring 
1  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896,  pp.  28of. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  471 

keenly  some  form  of  national  political  unity  and  freedom,  saw  that 
the  only  way  to  attain  it,  if  it  was  attainable,  was  by  patience  and 
education.     But  there  was  a  small  party  of  pure  revolutionists  who 
were  ready  to  go  to  any  extreme.     The  Huntchagist  Society  was 
composed  of  these.  '     It   fomented   the  spirit  of  armed   opposition 
wherever  it  could.     It  exaggerated  and  published  over  Europe  all  re- 
ports of  outrages  and  oppression.     The  Armenian  people  did  not 
respond  to  the  incitements  of  the  revolutionists,  so  they  resorted  to 
more  violent  means,  attacking  Moslems  so  as  to  arouse  trouble  and 
call  the  attention  of  Europe.     They  even  attacked  their  own  people. 
They  made  threats  and  published  revolutionary  placards.     At  last 
they  grew  desperate,   and  especially  after  the  first  massacres  were 
ready  to  do  anything  to  make  the  atrocities  in  Armenia  so  appalling 
that  the  Christian  Powers,  especially  Russia,  would  have  to  interfere. 
Unquestionably  they  did  give  the  Turks  the  very  opportunity  for 
which  they  had  been  watching  and  in  many  cases  furnished  them 
with  a  valid  case  against  the  Armenians  as  the  real  aggressors.     But 
when  this  has  been  said  three  things  need  to  be  added.     (1)  The 
revolutionary  movement  among  the  Armenians  did  not  justify  the 
Turkish  Government  in  proceeding  to  obliterate  the  whole  people, 
women  and  little  children,  or  in  butchering  innocent  communities 
which  had  opposed  the  revolutionary  element,  and  (2)  while  probably 
many   sympathized    with    the   nationalist    hopes   of    the   race,    the 
Huntchagist  party  and  its  adherents  constituted  a  small  proportion  of 
the  people  and  the  Turks  knew  well  how  to  deal  with  them  and  to  sepa- 
rate them  from  the  harmless  and  inoffensive.    (3)  The  wild  revolution- 
ary movement  only  grew  up  after  the  demonstration  on  England's 
part  that  she  did  not  propose  to  fulfill  her  obligations  under  the 
Cyprus  Convention.     Who  can  wonder  that  the  Armenians  felt  that 
their  case  was  hopeless  and  that  there  was  no  relief  except  in  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  history  that  set   Bulgaria  free?     It  was  a  wrong  and 
wicked  and  frightful  course,  but  the  revolutionary  party  deliberately 
chose  it.     Sacrifice  was  better  than  perpetual  slavery. 

These  were  the  causes  of  the  Armenian  massacres.  Yet  a  Turk 
would  probably  have  added  another,  namely,  the  influence  of  the 
missionaries.  He  would  have  alleged  that  the  missionaries  were  in 
sympathy  with  the  nationalist  dreams  and  revolutionary  purposes  of 

1  See  Bliss,   Turkey  and  the  Armenian  Atrocities,  pp.  334-338. 


472  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  advanced  party,  that  some  of  its  leaders  had  been  under  mission- 
ary influence,  that  often  mission  buildings  were  compromised  with  it. 
In  this  view  the  Turks  were  utterly  mistaken.  With  the  desire  of  the 
people  for  freedom  from  oppression  and  tyrannical  misrule  doubtless 
every  Christian  man  in  Turkey  sympathized,  but  the  missionaries  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Huntchagists,  pointed  out  the  wickedness  and 
futility  of  the  movement  from  the  beginning  and  kept  their  enterprise 
as  aloof  as  possible  from  every  suspicion  of  complicity  with  it.  '  As 
Dr.  Hepworth  wrote  after  returning  from  the  tour  of  investigation, 
which  he  made  "at  the  suggestion  of  the  Sultan  "  to  investigate  and 
report  upon  the  conditions,  the  missionaries  from  the  first  had  been 
opposed  to  revolution  and  had  done  much  to  maintain  order  and  to 
persuade  Armenians  to  be  loyal  to  the  Government.  2  Indeed  they 
had  incurred  the  enmity  of  the  revolutionary  movement  on  just  this 
account.  Much  of  the  revolutionary  movement  was  atheistic  or 
agnostic.  The  missionaries  of  course  preached  an  evangelical  relig- 
ion and  strove  to  introduce  it  into  the  old  Church  also.  The  revo- 
lutionary Armenians  valued  the  old  Church  merely  as  the  one  national 
bond  and  yet  as  freethinkers  desired  its  functions  to  be  formal  and 
ecclesiastical  merely.  They  disliked  on  both  accounts  accordingly 
the  missionary  propaganda.  The  missionaries  confined  themselves  to 
their  direct  spiritual,  educational  and  philanthropic  work  and  did  not 
touch  the  revolutionary  movement  or  "try  to  cultivate  the  Armenian 
nationality."  3 

Apart  from  any  relationship  to  the  Armenian  revolutionary  move- 
ment, however,  the  Turk  doubtless  felt  that  the  missionary  movement 
had  a  distinctly  political  character.  We  scarcely  need  to  disavow 
this.  As  Dr.  Washburn  said  at  the  Ecumenical  Missionary  Confer- 
ence, "American  missionaries  in  Turkey  have  no  political  ends  in 
view  of  any  kind  or  shape  whatever.  They  have  not  gone  to  Turkey 
to  overthrow  the  Turkish  Government  or  to  reform  the  Turkish  Gov- 
ernment, or  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  ruling  of  the  country."  4 
At  the  same  time  the  very  presence  of  Western  men  in  Turkey  is  a 

1  Letter  of  Cyrus  Hamlin  in  Congregationalist,  December  23,  1893,  quoted  in 
Foreign  Relations  of  the  United  States,  1895,  Part  II,  pp.  1 4 1 5  f. 

8  Hepworth,  Through  Armenia  on  Horseback. 

3  Ecumenical  Conference  Report,  Vol.  I,  p.  453,  remarks  of  Mr.  F.  Perry 
Powers,  Editor  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce. 

•»  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  452. 


The  Armenian  Massacres 


473 


hindrance  to  crime  and  misrule.  The  missionaries,  as  persons,  fur- 
nished a  perpetual  check  upon  oppression.  Any  Western  man  does 
this ;  much  more,  men  of  high  character.  Simply  by  living  in  the 
country,  accordingly,  the  missionaries  by  the  force  of  their  example 
and  character,  affected  politics,  or  what  is  the  same  thing,  Turkish 
tyranny.  In  the  second  place,  the  influence  of  Russia  and  France 
was  unquestionably  used  in  high  quarters  against  the  missionaries, 
who  were  regarded  by  them  as  emissaries  of  England,  and  Turkey 
was  pressed  to  take  the  same  view  of  them.  Of  course  they  were 
nothing  of  the  kind,  but  they  spoke  the  English  language  and,  say 
what  we  may,  we  are  practically  one  with  the  English  in  all  our  ideals 
and  influences  in  Asia.  The  Turks  looked  upon  the  missionaries 
as  English  agents  and  hated  them  accordingly.  And  in  the  third 
place  the  influence  of  the  missionary  movement  was  wholly  and  pow- 
erfully in  the  direction  of  that  enlightenment,  progress  and  upright- 
ness which  the  Sultan  abhorred  and  had  set  himself  to  oppose.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  of  this  sort  of  revolutionary  influence,  Chris- 
tian missions  everywhere  in  the  world  are  guilty.  They  antagonize 
moral  evil  and  set  in  operation  those  forces  of  truth  and  justice  which 
sooner  or  later  destroy  iniquity  and  create  a  new  order  of  peace  and 
security  and  righteousness.  To  this  extent  the  instinct  of  the  Sultan 
was  correct. 

The  missionary  movement  has  been  the  most  powerful  movement 
at  work  in  the  whole  Empire  towards  righteousness.  All  of  the  words 
of  the  diplomats  in  Constantinople,  words  which  filled  the  closing 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  with  the  unpleasant  odor  of  their  in- 
sincerity or  of  the  insincerity  of  the  purposes  of  the  Governments  back 
of  them,  have  not  accomplished  for  Turkey  a  fraction  of  what  the 
missionaries  have  done,  especially  for  the  Armenians — as  we  are  speak- 
ing now  of  them,  although  other  nationalities  might  be  included.  As 
Ramsay  says, 

"  They  sought,  first  and  foremost,  to  organize  an  improved  system  of  education  l 

1  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  November,  1903,  published  an  extract 
from  an  article  in  the  Boston  Transcript  from  Vladimir  And reieff  Tsanoff  in 
which  he  spoke  as  follows  of  the  American  Mission  Schools :  "  All  over  the  Orient 
the  name  'American'  has  a  living,  breathing,  stirring  significance  which  it  exer- 
cises nowhere  else.  Wholly  apart  from  any  abstract  question  of  liberty,  the  vast 
American  missions  in  the  Turkish  Empire  are  an  absolute  necessity  there,  be- 
cause for  many  parts  of  Armenia  and  Syria  the  American  schools  supply  all  the 


474  Missions  and  Modern  History 

for  a  people  already  Christian,  but  deplorably  ill-educated,  and  debarred  by  the 
Turkish  policy  for  many  centuries  from  receiving  any  proper  education ;  inas- 
much as  any  system  of  education  among  the  Armenians  was  necessarily  incon- 
sistent with  the  repression  of  every  symptom  of  freedom  or  union  or  organization 
among  them,  which  constituted  the  Armenian  policy  of  the  Turks.  The  reform- 
ing policy  of  Sultan  Mahmud,  after  he  recognized  that  the  empire  could  not  be 
maintained  simply  on  massacres  like  that  of  the  Greeks  in  Scio,  or  of  the 
Janissaries  in  Stamboul,  inaugurated  a  new  era.  But  the  Armenians  themselves 
were  too  crushed  and  down-trodden  to  take  advantage  of  it.  .  .  .  The 
American  mission  stepped  in  to  offer  to  the  Armenians  what  they  could  not  make 
for  themselves.  .  .  .  The  missionaries  had  almost  everything  against  them 
except  the  three  former  Sultans.  .  .  .  But  in  spite  of  every  obstacle,  the  mis- 
sion grew  into  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  beneficent  organizations  that  have 
ever  been  elaborated  by  private  enterprise  and  skill.  .  .  .  The  missionary 
colleges  have  sought  neither  to  gain  anything  themselves  nor  to  prevent  others  from 
gaining  anything,  whereas  the  whole  aim  of  the  diplomacy  of  every  European 
Power  has  been  first  to  prevent  any  other  from  gaining  anything,  and  secondly 
to  achieve  some  selfish  gain.  .  .  .  Free  constitutional  government  depends 
on  the  existence  and  strength  and  good  sense  of  an  educated  middle  class. 
.  .  .  The  work  of  the  missionaries  has  been  to  produce  an  educated  middle 
class  in  the  Turkish  lands ;  and  they  have  done  it  with  a  success  that  implies 
both  good  method  in  their  work  and  good  raw  material  to  work  upon."  ' 

schooling  that  exists.  The  Syrian  Protestant  College  at  the  very  city  of  Beirut 
has  an  influence  extending  a  thousand  miles.  The  same  is  true  of  nearly  a  dozen 
American  colleges  scattered  over  a  huge  territory,  with  their  network  of  Ameri- 
can missionary  schools.  The  Turks  do  not  make  provision  for  the  study  of  any- 
thing except  the  Koran.  They  do  not  allow  the  enslaved  Christians  to  open 
schools  of  their  own ;  it  remains,  therefore,  for  these  missionaries  from  Europe 
and  America  to  provide  schools.  And  they  have  a  huge  territory  to  cover.  The 
Euphrates  College  at  Harpoot,  which  the  Turks  tried  to  set  fire  to  a  short  while 
ago,  has  some  1,100  students  in  its  collegiate  and  preparatory  departments.  The 
colleges  at  Aintab,  Marsovan,  the  Central  Turkey  College,  the  recently  organized 
•  American  College  '  at  Smyrna,  the  famous  Robert  College,  overlooking  the 
fortresses  of  the  Bosphorus,  all  these  and  others,  with  their  attendant  common 
schools,  represent  a  field  of  work  at  which  devoted  missionaries  have  toiled  for 
nearly  a  century,  with  increasing  success  and  with  immeasurable  beneficence. 
Aside  from  their  cash  value  of  $6,500,000  (multiply  ten  times  to  appreciate  the 
Oriental  standard  of  money),  these  American  missions  have  received  not  far  from 
§20,000,000  current  expenses  since  the  beginning  of  the  work.  Even  if  the 
commercial  and  political  elements  of  the  country  neglected  to  protect  these  vast 
interests,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  public-spirited  citizens  to  champion  them. 
They  represent  to  the  world,  when  the  time  comes  for  a  final  judgment,  the  larg- 
est single  contribution  of  the  country  to  a  cause  from  which  it  could  never  hope 
for  the  slightest  material  return,  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  earth.  America  could 
not  afford  to  repudiate  this  signal  contribution  of  her  own  to  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity and  civilization.  The  institutions  which  she  has  founded  she  must  pro- 
tect." 

1  Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  pp.  22if,  225ff. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  47  £ 

The  missions  have  developed  strength  of  character,  intelligence, 
social  virtue,  honesty,  independence  of  nature  among  the  Armenians, 
awakened  the  old  Church  to  new  life  and  poured  into  the  whole 
nation  a  new  spirit.  They  have  been  the  great  force  at  work  all  over 
Asia  Minor,  though  in  the  western  section  other  forces  have  also 
worked,  such  as  the  Greek  spirit,  operating  towards  progress  and 
life.  In  this  the  missions  were  encouraged  by  the  preceding  Sul- 
tans, but  Abdul  Hamid's  policy  of  reaction  and  Mohammedan  re- 
vival and  Oriental  absolutism  has  sought  in  every  way  to  reverse  the 
policy  of  his  predecessors  and  crush  out  the  missionary  work. 

At  the  same  time  we  ought  to  try  to  see  the  Turkish  point  of  view. 
To  the  nationalistic  Turk  the  representative  of  Christianity  and  Western 
civilization  must  appear  as  a  disturber.  He  represents  alien  ideals  in 
religion  and  in  politics  as  well.  As  we  should  fear  in  America  a  great 
Moslem  enterprise,  so  naturally  Moslems  in  Asia  fear  a  great  Christian 
enterprise.  And  they  have  no  tradition  of  toleration  and  religious 
liberty  and  of  the  propriety  of  moral  means  of  suasion  alone,  to  help 
them  to  be  calm  and  keep  the  peace.  Furthermore  as  against  the  Ar- 
menians the  Turks  had  causes  of  resentment,  only  half-defined  per- 
haps and  in  no  wise  legitimate  grounds  for  massacre,  but  real  and 
powerful.  The  economic  and  industrial  inferiority  of  the  Turk  is 
in  large  measure  his  own  fault.  The  Armenians  were  accepting  the 
new  life  that  had  entered  the  country  and  were  rising  by  it.  The 
Turk  had  rejected  it.  The  Armenians  in  consequence  were  steadily 
forging  ahead.  They  were  the  bankers  and  prosperous  merchants, 
and  the  conditions  of  the  race  were  visibly  lifted  year  by  year.  As  the 
Russian  hated  the  Jew  for  his  financial  shrewdness  and  success,  so 
the  Turk  became  enraged  against  the  Armenian.  He  was  ready  for 
the  massacres.  The  chance  for  the  revenge  of  unsuccess  came  to 
him  and  the  smell  of  loot  was  sweet.  We  must  allow  for  the  human 
motive  of  desire  to  balance  things  up  by  the  rough  equality  of  ruin. 

How  difficult  the  position  of  the  missionaries  was  made  by  the 
massacres  is  sufficiently  evident.  They  had  come  to  Turkey  primarily 
for  the  sake  of  the  Armenians.  For  them  they  lived.  Yet  they  could 
not  approve  of  tactics  which  they  saw  were  wrong  and  doomed  to 
failure  and  could  have  no  other  effect  than  simply  to  play  into  Russia's 
hands  on  one  side  and  the  Sultan's  on  the  other.  Indeed  many  be- 
lieved that  Russia  was  instigating  the  revolutionary  movement  with 


476  Missions  and  Modern  History 

this  end  in  view.  Even  if  the  missionaries  had  approved  they  could 
have  done  nothing.  A  finger  lifted  would  have  given  Turkey  pre- 
text for  demanding  their  removal.  And  when  the  massacres  began, 
the  missionaries  dared  hardly  speak.  Was  not  the  Sultan  an  amiable 
man  ?  Who  would  believe  the  statements  of  a  missionary  as  against 
the  official  hallucinations  from  Constantinople  ?  Moreover  the  Sul- 
tan was  watching  with  eagerness  to  discover  any  reason,  however 
insignificant,  for  excluding  from  Turkey  any  Christian  missionary. 
The  tact  and  wisdom  with  which  the  missionaries  carried  themselves 
justified  the  words  of  Sir  Philip  Currie  in  speaking  of  the  outrages  : 
"The  one  bright  spot  in  all  the  darkness  that  has  covered  Asiatic 
Turkey  has  been  the  heroism,  the  prudence  and  the  common  sense  of 
the  American  missionaries."  ' 

The  situation  of  the  missionaries,  threatened  with  their  lives  and 
hated  by  the  Sultan,  naturally  raised  again  the  question  as  to  the 
political  rights  of  missionaries.  That  question  will  be  discussed  in 
connection  with  the  Boxer  uprising  and  it  is  necessary  to  say  here  only 
that  Turkish  firmans  and  treaty  stipulations  had  established  in  the  most 
secure  way  the  rights  of  the  missionaries  to  live  in  Turkey  and  to  do 
their  work  there.  There  could  be  no  question  as  to  their  legal  rights.  - 
The  only  question  was  whether  the  missionaries  were  to  be  deprived  of 
their  rights  by  the  Sultan  without  any  protest  from  their  own  Govern- 
ments. Mr.  John  Sherman,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations  in  the  Senate,  answered  "  Yes."  If  missionaries  went  where 
they  were  not  wanted  they  went  at  their  own  peril.  The  Govern- 
ment could  not  follow  them  and  protect  them.     The  missions  did  not 

1  Bliss,  Turkey  and  the  Armenian  Atrocities,  p.  323.  "  England  and  America 
sent  large  sums  of  money  for  the  relief  of  the  [Armenian]  sufferers  but  the  country 
was  in  such  disorder  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  representatives  of  the  Red  Cross 
to  get  this  money  to  its  destination,  except  through  the  missionaries  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  by  whom  it  was  sent  to  every  part  of  the  Empire.  As  Dr.  Barton  told 
us  last  year,  besides  the  money  of  the  American  Board,  Mr.  Peet,  our  treasurer 
at  Constantinople,  had  entrusted  to  him  from  private  donors  over  $1,200,000, 
every  dollar  of  which  reached  its  destination  with  little  delay  and  without  the 
loss  of  a  penny.  Our  missionaries  are  so  trusted  that  the  order  of  any  one  of 
them  in  the  interior  of  Turkey,  upon  our  treasurer  at  Constantinople,  though 
written  on  a  small  piece  of  paper  torn  from  a  blank-book,  is  good  in  every  way. 
During  these  outrages  referred  to,  the  Armenian  Patriarch  had  such  confidence 
in  our  missionaries  that  he  used  them  to  dispense  the  money  which  came  to  him 
in  preference  to  his  own  priests.  And  it  is  most  interesting  to  note  that  the  Sul- 
tan of  Turkey  however  much  he  dislikes  Christianity  always  has  a  Christian  to  care 
for  his  private  funds  "  (Address  by  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.  D.,  at  Annual  Meet- 
ing of  the  American  Board,  1903,  "  The  King's  Business  Requires  Haste,"  pp.  8f.). 


The  Armenian  Massacres  47,7 

ask  the  Government  to  follow  them.  But  they  did  expect  that  the  Gov- 
ernment should  do  for  them  no  more,  no  less  than  it  did  for  all  its 
citizens,  namely,  secure  to  them  the  full  exercise  of  their  established 
rights,   freely  granted   to  them  by  the  Turkish  Government  itself.1 

The  question  in  a  sentence  is  simply  this.  Shall  we  represent  our- 
selves in  Asia  by  the  purely  secular  and  often  vicious  side  of  our 
civilization  or  shall  we  have  there  also  what  is  best  and  purest  ?  Take 
Constantinople  alone.  "  Civilization  represented  by  Western  com- 
mercial enterprise  and  isolated  from  religious  principle  has  been  in 
contact  with  the  people  of  Constantinople  for  many,  many  years. 
Since  the  Crimean  war  it  has  had  untrammelled  sway.  Some  of  the 
externals  of  environment  have  benefited  from  this  contact.  Individuals 
may  sometimes  have  been  lifted  out  of  the  quagmires  of  the  mass  of 
the  population  by  glimpses  of  what  manhood  really  is.  But  there  is 
no  question  as  to  the  general  result.  The  result  has  been  the  moral 
deterioration  of  the  city  and  the  strengthening  of  the  repulsion  felt 
by  Turks  towards  the  West.  One  of  the  leading  Turkish  papers  of 
Constantinople  dealt  with  this  subject  not  long  ago.  It  said  that 
the  one  positive  influence  of  Western  civilization  is  against  God  and 
in  favour  of  drunkenness  and  debauchery.  It  pointed  to  the  great 
number  of  disorderly  houses  in  Pera,  which  engulfed  and  destroyed 
large  numbers  of  Mohammedan  youth,  and  it  declared  in  open  terms 
that  the  family  life  of  Europeans  living  in  Pera  is  such  as  to  lead  to 
the  supposition  that  marital  fidelity  is  not  known  there.  '  We  want 
none  of  this  Christian  civilization,'  said  the  Turk."  2  To  be  repre- 
sented thus  in  Asia  is  the  consequence  of  the  anti-missionary  policy. 
It  is  not  the  policy  of  true  patriots  or  of  Christians. 

As  from  every  great  sorrow  and  sacrifice,  some  true  blessings  have 
flowed  from  the  sufferings  of  the  Armenians.  (1)  In  many  cities 
great  revivals  followed.  Prof.  Rendell  Harris  wrote  from  Aintab 
in  April,  1896  :  "  The  people,  too,  in  the  midst  of  the  sorrows,  have 
turned  their  attention  to  religion  in  a  way  that  has  probably  never 
been  known  before.  All  the  churches  were  crowded  generally  twice 
a  day,  and  the  people  will  sit  for  hours  listening  to  the  consolations  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God."  3     And,  again,  from  Aintab  Dr.  Fuller  wrote  : 

1  Dwight,    Treaty  Rights  of  the  American  Missionaries  in  Turkey ;  Dennis, 
The  Turkish  Problem  and  the  Status  of  Our  Missionaries. 
3  Dwight,  Constantinople  and  its  Problems,  p.  194. 
3  Harris,  Letters  from  Armenia,  p.  44. 


478  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"There  is  a  marvellous  awakening  here."  '  And  there  were  awak- 
enings in  many  other  churches,  where  a  few  months  before  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs  had  been  flowing.  (2)  The  common  sufferings  drew 
together  the  Gregorians  of  the  old  Church  and  the  Protestants  of  the 
new.  The  people  of  the  two  Churches  met  together.  Missionaries 
were  invited  to  preach  at  the  Gregorian  High  Mass  and  in  many 
places  where  there  had  been  a  chasm,  the  chasm  disappeared.  The 
spirit  of  a  common  love  in  a  common  grief  became  Christian 
and  holy.  "The  first  result  of  these  horrible  massacres,"  wrote 
Professor  Harris,  "  has  been  to  draw  together  the  various  bodies  of 
Christians  and  to  accomplish  a  religious  unity  such  as  no  Councils 
could  ever  have  found  a  basis  for."2  (3)  Thousands  of  orphans 
came  as  a  consequence  of  the  slaughter  of  their  parents  into  the  hands 
of  the  missionaries.  It  is  estimated  that  at  first  5,000  were  thus  thrown 
upon  the  sympathy  and  care  and  education  of  the  missions.3     The 

1  Harris,  Letters  from  Armenia,  p.  137. 

«  "  The  way  it  comes  about  is  something  like  this :  it  is  the  result  of  three  oper- 
ating factors.  First,  the  solidifying  influence  of  an  awful  persecution ;  the  same 
cause  which  brought  in  the  early  Christian  Church  the  orthodox  and  the  so-called 
heretic  before  the  same  tribunal,  and  often  resulted  in  the  canonization  of  the 
heretic  along  with  the  orthodox  (as  in  the  case  of  Perpetua  and  Felicitas,  and 
other  well-known  martyrs),  has  been  at  work  here ;  and  the  Christians  here  have 
been  wonderfully  drawn  together  by  the  trials  through  which  they  have  had  to 
pass.  As  one  of  the  pastors  said  to  me  to-day,  '  We  were  like  pieces  of  cold 
iron,  but  this  persecution  has  welded  us  together.'  The  second  cause  which  has 
been  at  work  is  the  sympathy  of  Western  Protestant  Nonconformity.  The 
Armenians  know  very  well  how  much  of  sympathy  has  come  to  them  from  the 
old  English  and  American  Evangelicals,  and  they  have  drawn  their  own  con- 
clusions. They  say :  « We  understand  the  Protestants  now,  and  know  that  they 
are  not  heretics.'  And  thirdly,  since  the  alleviation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  people 
has  largely  flowed  through  the  hands  of  the  native  Armenian  pastors,  working 
with  the  old  Gregorian  Armenians,  the  two  poles  of  religious  thought  and  life 
have  been  brought  into  such  contiguity  that  sparks  of  material  love  have  been 
passing  all  the  time.  No  doubt  other  and  higher  influences  have  also  been  at  work 
which  do  not  admit  of  classification  under  firstly,  secondly,  and  thirdly,  because 
they  are  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all.  Well,  one  result  of  this  upheaval 
in  Aintab  has  been  that  the  Protestants  (including  the  college  professors  and  native 
preachers)  have  been  preaching  the  Gospel  in  the  old  Gregorian  Church,  and  in 
the  very  midst  of  the  old  Gregorian  ritual  "  (Harris,  Letters  from  Armenia, 
pp.  43,  44). 

s "It  has  been  a  great  privilege  to  see  the  wonderful  work  that  is  being  car- 
ried on  here  by  these  two  giants,  Dr.  Raynolds  and  his  wife.  Think  of  a  man 
as  at  once  mission  treasurer,  distributing  relief  all  over  the  plain  and  keeping 
the  accounts  involved  and  sending  the  reports  that  are  required,  keeping  up 
preaching  services  in  two  places  four  miles  apart,  superintending  the  care  of 
500  orphans  and  400  day  pupils;  the  500  not  only  cared  for  physically  but 
taught  and  so  utilized  as  in  part  to  pay  their  own  expenses.  For  example,  there 
are  trades  taught ;  half  the  day  is  given  to  trades  and  half  to  study.     All  the 


The  Armenian  Massacres  479 

significance  of  this  for  the  future  it  is  impossible  to  overestimate.  (4) 
The  Huntchagist  movement  for  the  time  at  least  was  broken  down  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  that  its  methods  of  doing  evil  that  good  may  come 
will  never  be  revived. 

On  the  other  hand  there  have  been  grievous  consequences  that  it 
will  take  long  time  to  overcome.  The  failure  of  Christendom  to 
stop  the  massacres  left  feelings  of  intense  bitterness  in  the  hearts  of 
many  of  the  Armenians.  It  deepened  the  atheistic  and  anarchistic 
tendency,  already  too  powerful.  Especially  in  Christian  lands  the 
Armenians  who  had  seen  their  countrymen  abandoned  by  the  Chris- 
tum nations  came  to  discount  and  hate  a  religion  and  a  civilization, 
which  had  proved  so  impotent  in  their  hour  of  need.  And  could 
the  Turk  be  blamed  if  in  some  measure  he  felt  the  same  scorn? 
Christendom  made  great  promises  but  in  the  emergency  they  amounted 
to  nothing.  What  respect  could  Christendom  claim  for  either  its  re- 
ligion or  its  civilization  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  add  as  any  consolation  for  it  all  that  no  repeti- 
tion of  the  massacres  is  possible.1     It  is  only  too  possible.     For  the 

cloth  used  is  woven  by  the  children  in  the  looms  on  the  place ;  the  skins  of  the  oxen 
and  sheep  eaten  are  cured  on  the  place  and  the  boys  make  them  up  into  shoes. 
All  the  work  needed  on  the  place  is  done  by  boys.  All  the  food  needed  is  pre- 
pared on  the  place,  which  trains  up  another  corps  as  bakers  and  cooks.  So  you 
have  every  day  on  the  place,  being  taught  to  live  Christian  lives,  not  far  from 
1,000  children.  Then  add  to  all  the  above,  the  medical  work  here  to  which 
three  afternoons  are  given  and  you  have  at  least  a  part  of  the  duties  of  this 
couple.  Alone,  without  associates  they  have  carried  all  these  burdens,  until  it  is 
a  wonder  they  are  not  broken  down.     .     .     . 

"  The  conditions  in  Persia  are  bad  enough,  but  so  far  above  what  one  finds 
here  that  there  is  no  comparison.  Think  for  example  of  having  every  one  of 
the  noble  band  who  have  been  working  here  over  fifty  years,  than  whom  no 
subject  has  been  more  loyal  or  done  more  for  the  advancement  of  the  interests 
of  the  kingdom,  all  treated  suspiciously  and  looked  upon  as  traitors,  unless  by  a 
very  few.  Think  of  the  absolute  failure  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  Govern- 
ment after  all  these  years  and  the  constant  subjection  to  every  indignity  and 
opposition  that  human  ingenuity  can  devise.  See  it  in  the  case  of  our  detention 
where  it  would  be  supposed  that  a  work  carried  on  openly  the  last  sixty  years 
would  at  least  command  some  respect,  and  yet  we  were  treated  as  if  we  had 
just  come  from  a  hostile  land,  with  the  worst  of  schemes  in  our  mind. 

"  No  wonder  that  the  poor  missionaries  here  are  often  compelled  to  cry  out, 
'  How  long,  oh  God, how  long?  '  It  certainly  takes  a  strong  faith  in  God  to  abide 
the  time  of  His  judgment  on  the  terrible  wrongs  done  here  "  (From  a  letter  from 
a  visitor  to  Van,  Turkey,  November,  1899). 

1  A  traveller  writes  from  the  interior,  of  the  anarchy  and  disorder  which  are 
preparing  the  way  for  any  woe : 

"  Conditions  here  in are  indescribably  bad,  and  getting  worse.     Robbing 

and  murder  are  of  almost  daily  occurrence.     Even  Kurds  dare  not  travel  except 


480  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

sad  lesson  of  the  horrors  was  that  even  the  most  Christian  and  hon- 
ourable of  all  the  European  powers  may  not  keep  her  pledges  or  inter- 
vene to  save  the  doomed  if  it  is  difficult,  or  contrary  to  her  interest 
to  do  so.  The  course  of  the  other  European  powers  is  contemptible 
enough.  All  played  for  their  own  interests,  Germany  the  most 
shamefully  of  all.  England  would  have  been  but  too  happy  to  end 
the  massacres  if  one  other  European  Power  had  sincerely  supported 
her.  But  Russia  and  France  were  working  together  and  Germany 
stood  off,  playing  the  part  of  the  Sultan's  best  friend,  his  only  true 
friend,  doing  nothing  for  the  dying  and  encouraging  the  Sultan  to 
ignore  all  the  proper  demands  of  the  other  Powers.1  The  Emperor 
boldly  championed  the  Sultan  through  it  all,  presenting  him  with  his 
portrait  in  diamonds  as  a  special  and  ostentatious  sign  of  friend- 
ship while  the  Constantinople  massacres  were  still  fouling  the  streets. 
And  the  jealousy,  duplicity,  and  greed  of  all  the  Powers  in  almost  all 
their  dealings  with  Turkey  has  been  notorious.  It  is  pitiable  to  read 
the  British  Blue  Book 3  detailing  the  negotiations  at  Constantinople, 
while  all  the  time  the  Sultan  was  laughing  in  his  sleeve  and  the  little 
children  were  sobbing  on  the  hills  of  Anatolia.  The  attitude  of  the 
Powers  was  set  forth  unblushingly  by  Count  Goluchowski,  speaking 
in  behalf  of  Russia  with  Sir  Edmund  Monson  in  Vienna.  Sir  Ed- 
mund wrote  to  Lord  Salisbury  of  the  interview.  "  In  presence 
of  this  heartrending  prospect,"  said  the  Count  of  the  situation 
in  Armenia,  referring  to  the  general  conditions  but  especially  to 
the  massacres  at  Urfa  and  the  selling  of  Armenian  boys  and  girls 
by  Circassians  in  the  district  near  Aleppo,  "it  is  intelligible  that 
numbers  of  humane  people  are  revolted  at  the  idea  that  Europe 
is    powerless,    and,    regardless   of  consequences,    would   wish   that 

in  company  and  armed.  Robbery  is  not  done  in  secret  but  openly  before  the 
eyes  of  everybody.  Even  the  so-called  sacred  men  of  the  Kurds  are  robbed,  as 
was  done  last  week.  Since  the  massacre  the  Kurds,  the  blood  appetite  prob- 
ably being  awakened  at  that  time,  have  become  much  worse  in  the  matter  of 
killing.  They  kill  without  provocation,  apparently  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  it. 
As  the  Christians  say,  it  used  to  be  robbery  when  they  met  a  Kurd,  now  it  is 
death.  These  Kurds  are  now  fighting  each  other.  The  Government  is  merely 
a  name.  The  country  is  in  anarchy.  The  people  are  completely  disheartened 
and  simply  shake  their  heads  incredulously  at  any  words  of  hope.  The  sad  part 
of  it  is  that  instead  of  driving  them  to  God  their  troubles  seem  to  be  driving  them 
away  from  God.  .  .  .  There  is  a  general  feeling  of  anxiety  here  with  ref- 
erence to  what  is  to  come." 

1  Reinsch,   World  Politics,  p.  276;  Ramsay,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  pp.  15 if. 

8  Turkey,  No.  I,  1896. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  481 

action  should  be  taken  by  some,  or  even  by  one  of  the  Powers,  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  extermination  of  the  miserable  Armenians.  But 
practical  statesmen  are  bound  to  consider  the  situation  from  another 
standpoint,  and  to  face  the  certainty  that  the  conflicting  interests, 
which  are  only  conciliated  by  the  maintenance  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire as  it  stands,  would  at  once,  if  the  latter  were  threatened  by 
coercive  measures,  be  brought  into  active  opposition,  with  infinitely 
more  calamitous  results  to  humanity  at  large  than  even  the  savageries 
now  being  perpetrated  on  this  wretched  people. ' '  '  Could  there  be  any- 
thing more  monstrous  ?  The  Armenians  must  be  left  to  be  butchered, 
because  if  any  one  tried  to  save  them  Russia  would  see  to  it  that  there 
should  be  grander  butchery !  So  Europe  did  nothing  and  England 
did  nothing  because  she  was  in  partnership  with  Europe.  But  why 
then  did  she  make  the  separate  agreement  with  Turkey  by  which 
England  alone  and  not  Europe  took  Cyprus  and  England  alone  and 
specifically  guaranteed  the  rights  and  protection  of  the  Armenians. 
It  is  no  excuse  from  a  great  debt  that  the  debtor  has  since  entered 
into  a  bad  partnership  in  which  his  partners  object  to  the  payment 
of  his  debt. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  why  did  not  America  intervene  ?  It  is  a 
fair  question,  and  quixotic  as  the  course  was  declared  to  be,  there  were 
those  who  believed  that  she  should  have  intervened,  that  the  failure 
on  the  part  of  Europe  to  do  what  was  her  manifest  duty  was  a  call  to 
the  United  States  to  step  in.  We  had  no  selfish  interest  to  secure. . 
We  could  have  confronted  the  Sultan  in  Constantinople  and  told  him 
plainly  that  the  outrages  must  stop.  They  destroyed  more  American 
property  and  imperilled  more  American  lives  than  any  other.  They 
affronted  us  more  than  any  other  nation,  except  Great  Britain. 
Some  are  bold  enough  to  think  that  we  owed  it  to  ourselves,  we 
owed  it  to  the  Armenians,  we  owed  it  to  humanity  to  use  at  Con- 
stantinople the  force  that  was  necessary  and  that  would  have  amply 
availed  to  end  the  horrors  which  made  America  sick.2 

But  the  duty  was  England's,  and  England  cannot  justify  her  fail- 
ure. No  talk  of  the  Venezuelan  difficulty  with  the  United  States 
which  did  not  arise  until  four  months  after  the  Sassoun  massacres, — 
of  the  peril  of  Russia's  acquiring  Constantinople,  if  troubles  should 

1  Blue  Book,  Turkey,  No.  2,  1896,  pp.  282f, 
5  Woolsey,  International  Laiv,  p.  60. 


482  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

arise,1 — or  of  the  wrong  of  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  another  state, 
a  plea  already  forestalled  by  the  Cyprus  Convention,  making  such 
intervention  England's  direct  duty — can  excuse  Great  Britain  from 
the  crime  of  watching  for  two  years  her  Armenian  wards  led  like 
sheep  to  the  slaughter  and  slain,  with  no  hand  lifted  in  their  defence. 

1  What  many  Englishmen  have  felt  about  Constantinople  is  shown  by  Prof.  E. 
A.  Freeman's  position  in  The  Turks  in  Europe  : 

"  .  .  .  People  say  that  we  ought  not  help  the  Eastern  Christians,  because 
by  so  doing  we  play  into  the  hands  of  Russia.  They  say  that  we  are  helping 
Russia  to  get  Constantinople,  and  that  if  Russia  gets  Constantinople  our  power 
in  India  will  come  to  an  end,  and  that  many  other  dreadful  things  will  happen. 
And  they  go  on  to  tell  us  that  Russia  is  the  wickedest  and  most  dangerous  of  all 
Powers,  that  she  is  the  special  enemy  of  England,  that  she  has  dealt  wickedly 
by  Poland  and  other  nations,  that  all  the  revolts  against  the  Turk  are  got  up  by 
her  intrigues,  and  that  therefore  Russia  is  to  be  withstood  and  thwarted  and 
suspected  in  a  way  in  which  we  should  not  withstand  or  thwart  or  suspect  any 
other  Power.     Now,  there  are  many  answers  to  all  this  talk : 

"  1.  If  it  is  right  to  help  the  Eastern  Christians,  we  ought  to  do  so,  whatever 
may  come  of  it. 

"  2.  We  may  be  quite  sure  that  Russia  does  not  wish  to  get  Constan- 
tinople, because  to  get  Constantinople  would  be  the  break-up  of  the  Russian 
Empire.  She  may  possibly  wish  to  set  a  Russian  prince  on  the  throne  of  Con- 
stantinople, as  there  has  been  talk  of  setting  an  English  prince  there ;  but  such  a 
prince  would  soon  cease  to  be  either  Russian  or  English.  We  have  seen 
enough  of  her  history  to  know  that  New  Rome  must  be  New  Rome,  and  cannot 
be  subject  to  Russia  or  to  any  other  power. 

"  3.  If  Russia  did  get  Constantinople,  it  would  make  no  difference  to  our 
power  in  India.     The  way  to  India  lies,  not  by  Constantinople,  but  by  Egypt. 

"  4.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  Russia  is  in  herself  much  better  or 
worse  than  any  other  Power.  She  has  done  some  bad  things,  as  all  other  Powers 
have  done.  But  it  is  very  strange  that  those  who  now  make  a  special  outcry 
about  Poland  are  the  very  same  party  who  never  thought  of  Poland  before  and 
who  rather  approved  of  Russia  as  long  as  she  was  really  doing  misdeeds.  And 
the  old  misdeeds  of  Russia  were  the  misdeeds  of  her  rulers  in  the  days  when  the 
Russian  people  had  no  voice  in  anything.  But  now  the  Russian  people  have  a 
voice,  and  it  is  the  generous  impulse  of  the  Russian  people  which  is  making 
their  emperor  come  to  the  help  of  the  oppressed,  whether  he  himself  wishes  it  or 
not.  Russia  is  in  no  way  the  enemy  of  England,  except  so  far  as  we  have  our- 
selves chosen  to  make  her  so.  It  is  absurd  to  say  that  the  revolts  are  all  stirred 
up  by  Russian  intrigues.  Men  who  are  oppressed  as  the  nations  under  the  Turk 
are  oppressed  do  not  need  any  foreign  intriguers  to  tell  them  of  their  oppressions. 
Lastly,  if  Russia  has  any  evil  designs,  we  shall  best  thwart  them  by  frankly 
working  with  her  in  everything  which  on  the  face  of  it  is  good.  If  she  seeks 
exclusive  influence  in  the  southeastern  lands,  and  if  we  wish  to  keep  her  from 
getting  such  influence,  the  best  way  is  to  help  her  to  deliver  those  lands,  and  so 
to  get  an  influence  in  them  equal  to  hers  "  (pp.  90-92). 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  sounds  a  little  idyllic.  As  to  Constantinople, 
however,  I  have  heard  a  prominent  British  consular  representative  in  Western 
Asia  frankly  expressing  the  same  opinions  as  Freeman's: 

"  We  have  made  too  much  fuss  over  Constantinople.  It  naturally  belongs  to 
Russia  and  some  day  Russia  will  have  it.  We  gain  nothing  by  incurring  un- 
popularity and  dislike  in  resisting  the  inevitable." 


The  Armenian  Massacres  483 

Who  can  wonder  that  the  Turks  themselves  scorned  Great  Britain 
and  showed  it  at  Aintab  after  the  massacres  when  they  saw  that 
England  would  do  nothing,  by  marching  about  the  town  leading  a 
donkey  with  a  mangy  dog  tied  on  its  back,  amid  great  uproar  and 
scorn,  crying  contemptuously,  "Make  way  for  Queen  Victoria."1 
And  who  can  wonder  that  Englishmen  themselves  were  the  first  to 
feel  the  shame  of  their  position.2  Mr.  Gladstone's  characteristic 
sense  of  justice  and  humanity  found  expression.  He  was  eighty- 
seven  years  of  age  then.  "  Whether  we  had  a  right  to  interfere 
single-handed,"  says  Mr.  Morley,  "  whether  we  were  bound  as  a  duty 
to  interfere  under  the  Cyprus  Convention ;  whether  our  intervention 
would  provoke  hostilities  on  the  part  of  other  Powers  and  even  kindle 
a  general  conflagration  in  Europe ;  whether  our  severance  of  diplo- 
matic relations  with  the  Sultan  or  our  withdrawal  from  the  concert 
of  Europe  would  do  any  good ;  what  possible  form  armed  interven- 
tion could  take — all  these  are  questions  on  which  both  Liberals  and 
Tories  vehemently  differed  from  one  another  then,  and  will  vehe- 
mently differ  again.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  bold  and  firm  in  his  replies. 
As  to  the  idea,  he  said,  that  all  independent  action  on  the  part  of 
this  great  country  was  to  be  made  chargeable  for  producing  war  in 
Europe,  '  that  is  in  my  opinion  a  mistake  almost  more  deplorable 
than  almost  any  committed  in  the  history  of  diplomacy.'  We  had  a 
right  under  the  convention.  We  had  a  duty  under  the  responsibility 
incurred  at  Paris  in  1856,  at  Berlin  in  1878.  The  upshot  of  his  ar- 
guments at  Liverpool  was  that  we  should  break  off  relations  with  the 
Sultan ;  that  we  should  undertake  not  to  turn  hostilities  to  our  pri- 
vate advantage ;  that  we  should  limit  our  proceedings  to  the  sup- 
pression of  mischief  in  its  aggravated  form  ;  and  if  Europe  threat- 
ened us  with  war  it  might  be  necessary  to  recede,  as  France  had  re- 
ceded under  parallel  circumstances  from  her  individual  policy  on 
the  Eastern  Qaestion  in  1840, — receded  without  loss  either  of  honour 
or  power,  believing  that  she  had  been  right  and  wise  and  others 
wrong  and  unwise.  If  Mr.  Gladstone  had  still  had,  as  he  puts  it, 
'the  years  of  1876,' he  might  have  made  as  deep  a  mark.  As  it 
was,  his  speech  at  Liverpool  was  his  last  great  deliverance  to  a  public 
audience."3     If  Mr.  Gladstone  had  acted  while  in  power  in  1880  as 

1  Harris,  Letters  from  Armenia,  p.  33. 

2  Watson,  Purple  Sonnets. 

3  Morley,  Life  of  Gladstone,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  522. 


484  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

he  spoke  when  out  of  power  in   1895,  there  would  have  been  no 
Armenian  massacres. 

The  fiercer  indignation  which  many  felt  found  expression  in  the 
Purple  Sonnets  of  Watson  : 

"  Still,  on  Hope's  loom,  the  infernal  warp  and  weft 
Woven  each  hour  !  still  in  august  renown, 
A  great  realm  watching,  under  God's  great  frown ! 
Ever  the  same !     The  little  children  cleft 
In  twain :  the  little  tender  maidens  reft 
Of  maidenhood  !     And  through  a  little  town 
A  stranger  journeying  wrote  this  record  down, 
« In  all  the  place  there  was  not  one  man  left.' 

0  friend,  the  sudden  lightning  of  whose  pen 
Makes  Horror's  countenance  visible  afar 
And  Desolation's  face  familiar 

1  think  this  very  England  of  my  ken 

Is  wondrous  like  that  little  town,  where  are 
In  all  the  streets  and  houses  no  more  men." 

And,  alas,  the  tale  is  not  yet  done.  So  long  as  the  Sultan  can 
continue  his  game  of  matching  Power  against  Power  and  thus  secure 
immunity  for  his  own  designs,  so  long  another  massacre  is  possible. 
Still  the  same  old  injustice  goes  on.  Still  the  Government  goes  from 
bad  to  worse.  Still  the  criminal  in  the  Yildiz  plots  for  the  triumph 
of  his  reactionary  Mohammedan  Orientalism  and  fondles  his  supreme 
Turkish  method  of  massacre.  Is  there  any  hope  of  reform  but  de- 
struction? "To  those  who  expect  to  see  a  Mohammedan  state  be- 
come tolerant  and  civilized  without  ceasing  to  be  a  Mohammedan 
state,"  says  Freeman,  "I  would  again  hold  up  the  solitary  example 
of  the  illustrious  Mogul.  If  European  Turkey,"  or  Asiatic  Turkey, 
we  add,  "  is  to  be  reformed  from  within,  without  the  coercion  of  either 
enemies  or  friends,  the  career  of  Akbar  must  be  the  guiding  star. 
Let  the  individual  Mohammedan  have  the  fullest  equality  with  the  in- 
dividual Christian,  but  let  not  the  individual  Christian  have  to  rec- 
ognize a  Mohammedan  master  as  his  sovereign.  So  long  as  a  Gov- 
ernment remains  Mohammedan,  so  long  must  it  be  intolerant  at  home ; 
so  long  will  it  only  be  restrained  by  weakness  from  offering  to  other 
lands  the  old  election  of  'Koran,  Tribute  or  Sword.'  "  ' 

How  can  things  grow  better  or  be  right  while  the  Sultan  destroys 
1  Freeman,  History  and  Conquests  of  the  Saracen,  p.  203. 


The  Armenian  Massacres  485 

his  own  land  and  the  Mohammedan  principle  that  none  but  a 
Moslem  can  enjoy  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship  rules  the 
state?  But  on  the  other  hand,  how  can  the  Turk  be  blamed  if  he 
distrusts  Christianity  and  Christian  Powers  ?  The  course  of  European 
politics  as  affecting  Turkey  is  not  charged  with  persuasive  evangelis- 
tic power.  It  would  be  wonderful  if  the  Turk  had  any  feelings  but 
fear  and  contempt  for  Christianity  and  the  nations  which  profess  it. 
While  he  has  had  opportunities  to  become  enlightened  he  has  been 
given  ampler  encouragement  to  continue  bigoted  and  benighted  and 
to  the  loss  and  distress  of  the  whole  world  his  fine  qualities  go  unde- 
veloped and  his  great  possibilities  of  good  work  no  useful  ministry  to 
mankind.  The  politics  and  diplomacy  of  Christian  nations  have 
cursed  two  great  races — the  Chinese  and  the  Turk. 

But  this  is  politics,  not  missions.  The  missionary  will  go  on  quietly 
with  his  work,  doing  only  what  the  laws  allow,  trangressing  no  just 
limit  of  his  rights  and  displaying  or  encouraging  no  disloyalty,  being 
patient  with  the  patience  of  God,  even  though  he  must  see  again 
what  for  two  bitter  years  he  saw  when 

"  To  the  wild  wolf  Hate  were  sacrificed 
The  panting,  huddled  flock  whose  crime  was  Christ." 


The    Going    of   the  Spaniard 


THE  GOING  OF  THE  SPANIARD 

THE  sixteenth  century  beheld  the  colonial  empire  of  Spain 
spread  over  nearly  a  third  of  the  world.  The  nineteenth 
century  saw  all  this  swept  away  and  the  nation  shut  back  in 
the  small  peninsula,  from  which  four  hundred  years  before  it  had 
begun  to  expand.  Races  come  and  go  like  men.  On  the  threshold 
of  the  twentieth  century,  the  Slav  slowly  fills  up  the  horizon  where  the 
sun  appears,  and  in  the  West  the  Spaniard  fades  away.  He  is  now 
scarcely  a  power  of  the  third  class  and  his  influence  upon  the  great 
movements  of  human  life  and  of  political  development  is  ended. 
Surely,  there  should  be  questionings  of  heart  in  the  great  Church 
which  has  dominated  the  Spanish  race  and  Spanish  Government. 
Even  allowing  for  the  degeneration  of  the  race,  why  is  it  that  Spain 
has  so  swiftly  and  completely  lost  influence  and  power  ?  It  is  the 
one  land  where  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  worked  its  will  and 
developed  its  results  absolutely  without  hindrance.  And  the  con- 
sequence is  ruin,  intellectual  and  political,  and  what  is  worse,  the  de- 
cay of  public  character,  where  it  existed,  and  the  prevention  of  its 
development,  where  there  was  none.  The  Spanish-American  war 
was  simply  the  last  touch  which  crumbled  in  the  shell  of  Spanish 
pretension  and  showed  how  hollow  and  unreal  its  boastings  were. 

"In  few  decaying  empires,"  says  Dr.  Dillon,  "  is  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  glorious  past  and  the  sordid  present,  between  fantastic 
dreams  and  repulsive  facts,  splendid  possibilities  and  hateful  realities, 
so  striking  and  so  cruel  as  in  the  land  of  Cervantes,  Cortez  and 
Calderon  de  la  Barca.  That  once  mighty  kingdom  is  now  but  the 
merest  shadow  of  its  former  self;  its  cities,  shrivelled  and  shrunken  to 
the  dimensions  of  mere  villages,  are  noted  only  for  their  mouldering 
monuments  of  long-departed  power,  wealth  and  glory ;  and  the  foot- 
steps of  the  foreigner,  as  he  crosses  the  broad  public  places  and  ill- 

489 


490  Missions  and  Modern  History 

paved  streets,  or  moves  along  the  mystically  sombre  aisles  of  the 
majestic  Cathedrals,  echo  and  reecho  with  a  weird  ultramundane 
sound,  till  he  starts  and  turns  to  assure  himself  that  the  ghosts  of  the 
past,  whose  presence  he  distinctly  feels,  have  not  suddenly  risen  from 
the  historic  dust.  In  the  period  of  its  greatness,  the  University  alone 
of  the  Salamanca  numbered  more  students  than  the  entire  city  pos- 
sesses inhabitants  to-day.  And  nearly  all  the  other  once  famous 
towns  resemble  it  in  this ;  arrested  development  is  the  curse  they 
have  inherited  from  the  past ;  decay  and  death  the  principal  prog- 
ress visible  in  the  present.  .  .  .  The  causes  of  this  calamitous 
breakdown  of  one  of  the  mightiest  nations  of  modern  times  are 
numerous,  and,  as  some  of  them  are  open  to  controversy,  it  would 
serve  no  useful  purpose  to  discuss  them  exhaustively.  One  of  the 
principal  evils  which  Spaniards  themselves  always  admit  and 
occasionally  lament  is  the  extraordinary  lack  of  instruction  which 
characterizes  the  people  as  a  whole.  Out  of  eighteen  million  inhabi- 
tants, the  number  of  illiterates  exceeds  sixteen  millions  !  .  .  . 
Monumental  ignorance  of  contemporary  history  and  modern 
languages  has  left  its  abiding  mark  on  the  ruling  classes  in  Spain, 
and  is  to  a  large  extent  answerable  for  the  irreparable  calamities  which 
have  overtaken  the  brave,  patient  and  noble-minded  people.  .  . 
Spain  is  suffering  from  misgovernment,  from  administrative  corruption, 
from  incompetent  statesmen,  from  financial  exhaustion,  from  the 
want  of  a  clearly  defined  policy,  from  a  vast  nosology  of  political 
diseases.     .     .     ." 

These  words  were  written  at  the  close  of  the  war  over  Cuba  and 
before  the  final  settlement  had  been  reached  at  Paris  and  Dr.  Dillon 
closed  his  article  with  a  contrast  between  the  two  opposing  nations  : 

"  •  •  •  In  all  probability,  Spain  has  lost  forever  not  only  Cuba  but  the 
Philippines,  the  possession  of  which,  if  properly  exploited,  might  have  been  made 
an  Open  Sesame  to  prosperity  and  political  existence.  Her  credit  is  des- 
troyed. She  is  saddled  with  the  Cuban  debt  as  well  as  her  own,  and  no 
longer  possesses  the  wherewithal  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  coupons.  The  little 
industry  and  trade  she  had  have  vanished;  cotton  mills  and  flour  mills  are 
closed.  Her  money  has  lost  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  of  its  purchasing  power  at  the 
very  moment  when  her  people  are  deprived  of  the  means  of  earning  it.  Bread- 
stuffs  are  become  scarce,  the  pinch  of  hunger  is  felt  throughout  the  kingdom,  dis- 
satisfaction is  being  manifested  in  tangible  and  dangerous  forms,  and  martial 
law  has  been  appealed  to.     And   at  this  moment,  says  El  ATaciunal,  '  the  con- 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  491 

gress  is  enjoying  the  clever  jokes  of  Senor  Segasta  about  the  ministerial  crisis  and 
roaring  with  laughter.' 

"'On  one  side  of  the  Atlantic,'  says  another  patriotic  journal,  'there  is  a 
Marine  Minister  who  remains  at  his  bureau  day  and  night,  and  a  head  of  the 
State  who  sometimes  refuses  to  go  to  bed  more  than  once  in  forty-eight  hours,  in 
order  to  await  news  of  his  country's  fleet;  and  on  the  other  side,  we  have  Minis- 
ters who,  having  received  the  terrible  news  of  the  holocaust  of  Cavite,  go  off  to 
a  bull-fight.  This  significant  contrast  contains  the  germs  of  the  future  history  of 
these  two  States.' 

"  The  question  as  to  how  all  these  difficulties  will  be  met  and  solved  is  in  itself 
insoluble.     .     .     ." l 

Now,  no  one  with  just  sympathies,  will  deny  the  great  good  to  be 
found  in  the  Catholic  Church  and  its  great  service  to  the  world.  In 
many  lands  it  is  teaching  truth  to  men  and  making  them  better.  It 
is  doing  this  in  America  and  other  countries  where  Protestant  Govern- 
ments allow  it  the  freedom  which  it  denies  to  Protestant  religion 
where  it  has  authority,  and  where  the  Protestant  atmosphere  nulli- 
fies its  corruption  and  iniquitous  absolutism.  It  is  doing  it,  also, 
here  and  there  in  heathen  lands.  Father  Doyle  quotes  fairly  the  testi- 
mony of  Major  Younghusband,  in  The  Heart  of  a  Continent,  of  a 
visit  to  a  mission  station  in  China. 

"  On  our  arrival,  we  were  cordially  welcomed  by  two  priests,  Pere  Litot  and 
Pere  Maviel,  and  introduced  to  the  Bishop,  a  noble-looking,  kindly  gentleman, 
who  had  lived  for  over  thirty  years  in  this  country,  and  who  has  since  died 
there.  A  noticeable  feature  in  this  village  was  that  the  inhabitants  were  all 
Christians.  The  mission  had  begun  by  educating  and  training  children  as 
Christians.  These  had  grown  into  men  and  had  sent  their  children  in  turn ;  and 
in  the  course  of  time  the  whole  village  had  become  Christian.  We  attended  the 
services  on  Sunday  and  were  very  much  struck  by  the  really  sincere  and  devout 
character  of  the  converts.  Brought  up  from  their  childhood  as  Christians  and 
under  the  kindly,  genial  influence  of  these  good  priests,  the  people  of  the  vil- 
lage seemed  like  a  different  race  from  the  cold,  hard  Chinamen  around  them. 

"  It  was  indeed  a  pleasure  to  see  these  French  missionaries  and  to  have  that 
warmhearted  greeting  which  one  European  will  give  another,  of  whatever 
nationality,  in  the  most  distant  corners  of  the  world. 

"  Except  the  French  Consul,  who  had  been  sent  to  inquire  into  the  outrage  on 
Pere  Conroux,  in  the  previous  year,  no  European  has  ever  visited  these  different 
mission  stations,  and  we  on  our  part  had  not  met  a  European  for  several  months, 
so  the  delight  of  this  meeting  may  be  well  imagined.     But  apart  from  that,  we 

1  Contemporary  Review,  Article,  "The  Ruin  of  Spain,"  June,  1898,  pp.  876- 
906. 


492  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

were  very  deeply  impressed  by  the  men  themselves.  Few  men  have  made  z. 
deeper  impression  on  me  than  these  simple  missionaries.  They  were  standing, 
transparent  types  of  all  that  is  best  in  man ;  there  was  around  them  an  atmos- 
phere of  pure,  genuine  goodness  which  made  itself  felt  at  once.  We  recognized 
immediately  that  we  were  not  only  with  good  men,  but  with  real  men.  What 
they  possessed  was  no  weak  sentimentality  or  flashy  enthusiasm,  but  solid  human 
worth.  Far  away  from  their  friends,  from  all  civilization,  they  live  and  work 
and  die ;  they  have  died,  two  out  of  the  three  we  met  in  these  parts,  since  we 
left. 

"  Their  strong  yet  gentle  and  simple  natures,  developed  by  the  hardships  of 
their  surroundings  and  the  loftiness  of  their  ideals,  and  untainted  by  the  contact 
with  worldly  praise  and  glamour,  impressed  itself  on  us  at  once  and,  as  we  saw 
evidenced  in  the  people  around,  had  affected  the  Chinese  likewise. 

"  '  Great  deeds  cannot  die. 
They  with  the  sun  and  moon  renew  their  light; 
Forever  blessing  those  who  look  on  them.' 

"  Others  may  bring  discredit  on  the  missionary  cause  and  produce  the  feeling 
of  hostility  to  it  which  undoubtedly  exists,  but  these  are  the  men  who  are  a  true 
light  to  the  world  and  who  will  spread  the  essence  of  Christianity — the  doing  of 
good  to  others — abroad. 

"  This  remote  mission  station,  established  here  where  no  other  Europeans  had 
ever  penetrated,  was  a  source  of  the  greatest  interest  to  us  and  fulfilled  our 
highest  ideal  of  such  a  station.  There  was  here  no  elaborate,  costly  house,  nc 
air  of  luxury  such  as  may  be  seen  in  many  missionary  establishments  elsewhere, 
but  everything  was  of  the  most  rigorous  simplicity.  There  was  merely  a  plain 
little  house,  almost  bare  inside  and  with  stiff,  simple  furniture.  Under  such 
hard  conditions  and  with  such  plain  surroundings,  and  shut  off  forever  from  in- 
tercourse with  the  civilized  world,  it  might  be  supposed  that  these  missionaries 
were  dull,  stern,  perhaps  morbid,  men.  But  they  were  precisely  the  contrary. 
They  had  a  fund  of  simple  joviality  and  were  hearty  and  full  of  spirits."  ' 

All  the  good  of  the  later  Catholic  Church  may  be  admitted  but  it 
remains  to  be  said  that  it  has  never  had  absolutely  free  course  in  a  land 
which  has  not  been  ruined.  It  has  never  saved  or  permanently 
elevated  a  single  nation.  It  has  not  purified  of  dishonesty  and  un- 
cleanness  any  race  where  it  has  been  left  alone  to  do  its  work,  and  it 
has  stamped  on  every  continent  the  evidence  of  its  inefficiency  to  ac- 
complish the  highest  results,  of  its  connivance  at  injustice  and  in- 
equality and  of  its  dissonance  with  freedom  and  progress. 

1  Christendom  Anno  Domino,  iqoi,  Vol.  II,  Father  Doyle's  article,  "  Roman 
Catholic  Missions,"  pp.  I95f. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  493 

The  primary  causes  and  effects  of  the  departure  of  the  Spaniard 
from  his  lost  possessions  in  Asia  and  America  illustrate  the  truth  of 
this  view. 

The  occasion  of  the  Spanish- American  war  was  the  gross  mis- 
government  of  Cuba  and  the  feeling  of  the  American  people  that 
they  could  not  longer  hold  their  hands  and  see  such  iniquity  at  their 
doors.  They  were  indignant  with  Europe  for  allowing  the  Armenian 
massacres.  How  could  they  justify  such  indignation  while  tolerating 
atrocities  almost  as  great  at  their  own  threshold  ?  After  all  had  been 
said  about  the  Armenian  Huntchagists  and  the  Cuban  Insurrectos, 
it  remained  true  that  Turkish  rule  and  Spanish  rule  alike  were  unen- 
durable and  ought  to  be  ended  and  the  American  people  determined 
that  so  far  as  Cuba  was  concerned,  Spanish  rule  should  be  ended  at 
once.  In  settling  the  terms  of  peace  at  the  end  of  the  war,  it  was  de- 
cided that  Cuba  should  be  free,  and  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippines 
the  property  of  the  United  States.  The  grounds  for  this  expulsive 
settlement  were  practically  the  same  for  all  the  islands  as  those  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Foster,  in  the  case  of  the  Philippines:  "The  moral 
grounds  for  the  possession  of  the  Philippines  were  that  the  colonial 
administration  of  Spain  had  been  conducted  with  great  cruelty,  in- 
justice and  in  disregard  of  personal  rights ;  that  it  would  be  inhuman 
and  morally  wrong  to  permit  Spain  to  retain  her  sovereignty ;  that 
the  weakened  power  of  that  Government  would  be  unable  to  tran- 
quillize the  disordered  and  lawless  conditions  existing  in  the  islands, 
to  protect  life  and  property,  and  to  perform  the  obligations  incident 
to  Government ;  and  that  it  was  for  the  interest  of  the  people  of  the 
Philippines  in  particular,  and  mankind  in  general,  to  extend  to  the 
archipelago  the  principles  of  civil  liberty,  equality  and  self-govern- 
ment, which  form  the  basis  of  American  institutions,  and  that  to  do 
so  was  a  duty  to  the  world  which  the  United  States  could  not 
rightfully  ignore.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the  utterances  of  President 
McKinley  during  and  following  the  negotiations,  without  being  satis- 
fied that  these  latter  considerations  exercised  a  controlling  influence 
with  him  in  determining  the  destiny  of  the  islands."  ' 

When   the   war  was  over,   Congress  authorized  the  President  to 
make  over  to  the  Cuban  people  the  Government  of  the  island  on  four 
conditions  :   that  Cuba  should  undertake  to  make  no  treaty  with  any 
1  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  p.  406. 


494  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

foreign  power  endangering  its  independence,  to  contract  no  debt  for 
which  its  current  revenue  would  not  suffice,  to  concede  to  the  United 
States  a  right  of  intervention,  and  to  grant  it  the  use  of  naval  stations. 
Cuba  accepted  these  conditions  and  on  Feburary  24,  1902,  the 
President  and  Vice-President  of  the  Cuban  Republic  were  formally- 
elected.  The  effects  of  the  new  relationship  on  the  trade  of  the 
United  States  and  Cuba  will  appear  in  this  statement : 

In  year  ending 

June  30  1897  1899  1901                  1903 

Imports  into  U.  S.  #18,406,815  $25,411,410  $43,423,088  $62,341,942 

Exports  to  Cuba  8,259,776  18,615,707  25,964,801  21,769,5721 

War  and  unrest  have  been  succeeded  by  peace  and  tranquillity. 
New  sanitary  arrangements  have  purified  the  Cuban  cities.  Rail- 
roads are  running  over  the  island.  New  capital  is  pouring  in. 
Schools  and  Protestant  missions  have  been  introduced.  Where  there 
was  tyranny,  stagnation,  persecution,  ignorance,  and  superstition,  the 
spirit  of  American  freedom  and  Protestant  Christianity  are  now  bring- 
ing in  the  new  and  different  order  which  Spain  and  Rome  have  al- 
ways opposed,  but  under  which  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  up- 
lifted and  purified  in  spite  of  herself. 

The  transformation  in  Porto  Rico  has  been  even  greater ;  for  there 
American  institutions  have  had  more  immediate  play  and  have  flour- 
ished in  the  certainty  of  American  political  jurisdiction.  A  news- 
paper writer  has  made  a  striking  comparison  of  the  changed  condi- 
tions : 

«  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  had  but  few  schools  (so-called), 

few  pupils  and  fewer  teachers,  while  it  now  has  1,200  schools,  1,225  teachers  and 
nearly  60,000  pupils. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  was  without  a  normal  school.  Now  it  has 
one  located  in  a  fine  building  erected  for  the  purpose,  with  over  100  Porto  Rican 
young  men  and  women  in  attendance. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico,  after  400  years  of  Spanish  occupation,  did 
not  own  a  single  school  building.  Now  it  owns,  free  of  all  debt,  forty  public 
school  buildings,  equipped  with  modern  school  furniture,  including  the  normal 
school  before  referred  to,  and  a  tine  high  school. 

"Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  paid  little  or  no  attention  to  sanitation, 
while  now  it  has  an  active  Board  of  Health,  the  result  of  whose  labours  was  a  re- 

>  The  Statesman's  Year  Book,  1904,  p.  553. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  495 

duction  of  13,821  in  the  number  of  deaths  in  the  year  ended  May  31,  1902,  com- 
pared with  the  prior  year. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico's  public  charities  were  but  few,  and  those 
few  indifferently  provided  for,  while  now,  it  has  a  well-organized  department  of 
charities,  properly  caring  for  the  leper  colony,  insane  asylum,  blind  asylum,  girls' 
charity  school  and  boys'  charity  school. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  knew  no  will  but  the  will  of  Spain;  now 
it  has  its  own  civil  Government,  legislative  assembly,  and  levies  and  spends  its 
own  taxes. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  helped  to  fill  the  coffers  at  Madrid  and  the 
pockets  of  officials  sent  over  from  Spain,  while  now  «  every  cent  of  the  insular 
revenue  is  spent  for  insular  purposes,'  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
not  only  bears  all  expenditures  for  national  purposes  in  the  island,  but  pays  out 
a  large  sum  monthly  for  the  maintenance  there  of  the  native  regiment. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  had  only  177^  miles  of  roads  (principal 
highways)  though  Spain  had  been  in  possession  for  400  years,  and  though  roads 
are  an  essential  in  an  agricultural  territory.  Now  Porto  Rico  has  328  miles  of 
roads,  an  increase  of  150^  miles  in  five  years,  or  within  twenty-seven  miles  as 
much  roads  as  Spain  constructed  in  400  years.  In  addition,  fifty-five  miles  of 
roads  have  been  reconstructed  and  repaired,  and  160  miles  surveyed  for  proposed 
new  roads.  The  result  was  made  possible  by  the  refund  grant  by  Congress  to 
Porto  Rico  of  #2,000,000,  out  of  the  import  duties  previously  levied  by  the  United 
States. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico  began  business  for  itself,  as  a  member  of 
the  American  family,  without  cash  capital,  while  now  it  has  about  #1,500,000  in 
its  treasury,  is  paying  its  bills  of  #2,500,000  yearly  as  they  become  due,  and  its 
revenues  are  steadily  increasing. 

"  Five  years  ago  to-day,  Porto  Rico's  commerce  with  the  United  States  for  the 
calendar  year  1898,  was: 

Imports  from #2,382,170 

Exports  to 1,404,004 

Total #3,786,174 

"While  for  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1903,  it  was: 

Imports  from      #12,000,000 

Exports  to 11,000,000 

#23,000,000 
Deduct  1898 3,786,174 

Common  Gain  for  one  year #19,313,826  "  » 

In  an  atmosphere  of  such  freedom,  intelligence  and  progress,  the 

1  The  New  York  Sun,  July  30,  1903.  Letter  of  Walter  J.  Ballard,  "  Five 
Years  in  Porto  Rico." 


496  Missions  and  Modern  History 

truth  of  evangelical  religion  can  thrive.  Already,  there  are  eight 
Protestant  missions  in  the  island,  where  five  years  ago  there  were 
none ;  where  five  years  ago,  indeed,  there  was  practically  no  religious 
toleration,  as  Segasta,  himself,  admitted  in  stating  the  complaints  of 
the  Spanish  subjects  in  the  West  Indies;  "...  So  that,  if  by 
arbitrary  dispositions  without  appeal,  by  penalties  imposed  by  procla- 
mations of  the  Governors-General,  or  by  simply  ignoring  the  laws  of 
procedure,  the  citizen  may  be  restrained,  harassed,  deported  even  to 
distant  territories,  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  exercise  the  right  of  free 
speech,  free  thought,  or  free  writing,  or  the  freedom  of  instruction,  or 
religious  tolerance,  nor  can  he  practice  the  right  of  union  and  asso- 
ciation." :  That  day  has  passed  forever.  Under  the  American  flag, 
the  thoughts  and  consciences  of  men  are  free. 

But  both  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  were  near  enough  to  the  United 
States  to  have  felt  already  the  influence  of  our  spirit  and  institutions. 
The  great  transformation,  a  real  missionary  transformation,  has  come 
in  the  Philippines. 

The  political  conditions  in  the  Philippines  were  bad.  The  report 
of  the  first  Philippine  Commission  stated  the  matter  quite  temper- 
ately:  "The  scheme  of  Government  instituted  by  Spain  for  the 
Philippines  was  in  itself  far  from  perfect,  and  in  its  practical  opera- 
tions it  was  open  to  the  gravest  objections.  It  failed  to  accomplish 
even  the  primary  ends  of  good  Government — the  maintenance  of 
peace  and  order  and  the  even  administration  of  justice;  nor  can  there 
be  any  doubt  that  it  proved  an  engine  of  oppression  and  exploitation 
of  the  Filipinos.  It  took  their  substance  in  the  form  of  taxes  and 
contributions  and  gave  no  equivalent  in  return.  The  preceding  sec- 
tions have  shown  the  use  made  of  the  public  moneys,  which  was  in 
general  an  unproductive  one.  The  people  paid  heavy  taxes  and  were 
subject  to  annoying  and  vexatious  restrictions  on  their  rights ;  yet  the 
country  was  not  developed,  roads  were  not  made,  popular  education 
was  not  established.  It  almost  seemed  as  though  the  great  trust  of 
Government  had  been  perverted  into  a  mere  instrument  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  governing  class  at  the  expense  of  their  subjects.  The  reve- 
nues were  swallowed  up  by  salaries,  most  of  which  seemed  unneces- 
sary. The  very  category  of  public  works  is  only  another  designation 
for  salaries.  There  were  in  reality  no  public  works.  The  revenues 
1  Van  Middeldyk,  The  History  of  Puerto  Rico,  p.  1 81. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  497 

of  the  archipelago  were  exhausted  by  unproductive  expenditures  on 
naval  and  military  establishments,  on  salaries  and  pensions,  on  the 
Church,  and  on  the  colonial  office  in  Madrid.     And  the  people  gov- 
erned had  no  redress,  as  they  had  no  control  or  voice  in  the  matter. 
"The  most  prominent  defects  in  this  scheme  of  Government  were  : 

(1)  The  boundless  and  autocratic  powers  of  the  Governor-General; 

(2)  the  centralization  of  all  Governmental  functions  in  Manila ;  (3) 
the  absence  of  representative  institutions  in  which  the  Filipinos  might 
make  their  needs  and  desires  known ;  (4)  a  pernicious  system  of  tax- 
ation ;  (5 )  a  plethora  of  officials  who  lived  on  the  country  and  by 
their  very  numbers  obstructed,  like  a  circumlocution  office,  the  public 
business  they  professed  to  transact;  (6)  division  of  minor  responsi- 
bilities through  the  establishment  of  rival  boards  and  offices  ;  (7)  the 
costliness  of  the  system  and  the  corruption  it  bred  ;  and  (8)  confusion 
between  the  functions  of  the  state  and  the  functions  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  religious  orders."  * 

What  Manila  was  under  the  Spaniards,  any  book  of  travel  written 
before  the  war  will  indicate.  "Considered  as  a  contemporary  com- 
munity," wrQte  Mr.  Henry  Norman,  after  his  visit,  "  Manila  is  an 
interesting  example  of  the  social  product  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  when  unrestrained  by  any  outside  influence.  Here  the 
Church  has  free  sway,  undeterred  by  secular  criticism.  All  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  priests.  The  great  monasteries,  with  their  high  barred 
windows,  shelter  the  power,  the  wealth,  the  knowledge  of  the  com- 
munity. The  Dominicans,  with  their  Archbishop,  the  Augustinians, 
the  Recoletanos,  and  the  Franciscans,  divide  the  people  among  them, 
their  influence  being  in  the  order  that  I  have  named  them.  Wise  in 
the  knowledge  of  that  which  they  have  created,  their  own  wealth  is 
invested  in  foreign  banks,  chiefly  in  Hongkong,  though  that  of  the 
Dominicans,  richest  of  all,  is  entrusted  to  the  Agra  Bank.  The  peo- 
ple are  plunged  in  superstition,  and  their  principal  professed  interest 
in  life  (after  cock-fighting)  is  the  elaborate  religious  procession  for 
which  every  feast-day  offers  a  pretext.  The  two  newspapers  are  par- 
odies of  the  modern  press,  ignorant  of  news,  devoid  of  opinion  save 
the  priests',  devoted  in  equal  parts  to  homily  and  twaddle.  The 
port,  for  its  exasperating  restrictions  and  obstructions,  is  said  by 
agents  and  captains  to  be  the  most  disagreeable  in  the  world  to  enter 
1  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  igoo,  Vol.  I,  pp.  8  if. 


498  Missions  and  Modern  History 

or  to  leave.  The  civil  authority  itself  is  in  many  respects  subject  to 
the  religious ;  during  the  chief  religious  festivals,  nobody  but  the 
Archbishop  is  permitted  to  ride  in  a  carriage.  A  large  part  of  the 
real  estate  of  the  city  is  in  the  possession  of  the  religious  orders.  If 
you  would  prosper,  it  is  indispensable  that  you  should  be  on  good 
terms  with  the  priests.  Their  suspicion  and  disfavour  means  ruin. 
The  personal  liberty  of  the  common  man  may  almost  be  said  to  be  in 
their  keeping.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  people  as  a 
whole  are  idle  and  dissipated,  and  that  most  of  the  trade  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  foreign  houses.  Altogether,  Manila,  distant  as  it  is  from 
other  communities,  with  little  intercourse  to  enlighten  it,  and  few 
visitors  to  criticise  or  report,  is  a  remarkable  and  instructive  example 
of  the  free  natural  development  of  '  age-reared  priestcraft  and 
its  shapes  of  woe.'  Of  the  six  characteristics  of  Manila — tobacco, 
hemp,  earthquakes,  cock-fighting,  priestcraft  and  orchids — the  first 
two  are  known  to  all  the  world."  '  It  is  not  the  first  two  alone  that 
are  well  known.  The  Manila  lottery  was  one  of  the  best  known  and 
most  demoralizing  institutions  in  western  Asia.  Its  tickets  were 
peddled  on  the  streets  from  Singapore  to  Shanghai  and  sold  on 
steamer  decks  and  in  inland  villages.  The  annual  average  value  of 
lottery  tickets  imported  and  exported  from  1884  to  1886  was  $807,680. 
On  all  trade  there  were  the  most  exacting  and  repressive  limita- 
tions. 

"  A  business  man  in  Manila  imported  some  cotton  goods.  He  declared  them 
correctly  at  the  customs,  but  could  not  get  them  passed.  After  nearly  two 
months  of  vexatious  delays,  a  customs  officer  said  to  him,  «  How  would  you  like 
to  pay  $300  or  $400  to  get  your  goods  through  ?  '  This  was  about  as  much 
profit  as  he  expected  to  make  on  the  entire  consignment.  He  said,  '  I  will  not 
give  you  a  cent.'  The  next  day  he  received  a  notice  from  the  customs  that  his 
goods  had  been  examined  and  found  to  be  silk,  and  he  was  fined  55,000.  He 
had  his  appeal,  of  course,  but  he  would  have  to  bribe  some  one  in  order  to  get  it 
presented  to  the  higher  authorities,  and  then  there  was  no  hope  of  his  ever  getting 
a  cent  back.  A  merchant  told  me  that  he  had  some  goods  stolen  out  of  the 
custom-house  (a  not  infrequent  occurrence)  and  after  exhausting  every  effort 
locally  to  obtain  redress,  he  sent  the  claim  to  the  Foreign  Office  in  London. 
They  sent  it  to  the  Spanish  Government  through  the  British  Minister  at  Madrid, 
and,  finally,  five  years  after  the  goods  had  been  stolen,  he  received  press  copies 
of  instructions  from  the  Spanish  Government  to  the  Manila  customs  to  pay.     He 

1  Norman,  The  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  pp.  1 741. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  499 

received  their  decision,  which  was  as  follows  :  « The  Government  ordered  A  and 
B  to  pay  conjointly.  A  is  dead  and  cannot  pay  and  B  is  not  responsible.' 
Just  before  the  war,  the  steamer  Esmeralda  took  among  other  cargo  to  Manila, 
3,000  bags  of  American  flour.  The  customs  officers  said  that  thirty  bags  had  a 
different  mark  on  them  from  the  others,  and  a  fine  of  $3,000  was  imposed  upon 
the  ship.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  the  '  fine '  would  have  gone  into  the 
pockets  of  the  officials."  • 

In  one  word,  the  administration  of  the  island  was  Spanish, 
thoroughly  and  consistently.  Nothing  more  needs  to  be  said.  The 
first  import  of  honesty  and  right  principle  would  inevitably  reveal  its 
worthless  and  illegitimate  character.  The  bombastic  proclamation 
of  the  Captain  General  of  the  Philippines,  issued  at  Manila  on 
April  23,  1898,  shows  the  utter  unreality  of  the  Spanish  spirit  and 
of  its  exhibition  in  administration  : 

"  Spaniards :  Between  Spain  and  the  United  States  of  North  America  hostili- 
ties have  broken  out.  The  moment  has  come  for  us  to  show  to  the  world  that  we 
have  courage  to  spare  to  conquer  those  who,  feigning  to  be  our  loyal  friends, 
have  taken  advantage  of  our  misfortune  and  have  exploited  our  magnanimity  by 
the  use  of  means  that  cultured  nations  hold  to  be  base  and  unworthy. 

"  The  North  American  people,  made    up  of  all  social  excrescences,  have  ex- 
hausted our  patience  and  have  provoked  a  war  by  their  perfidious  machinations, 
by  their  unloyal  acts,  by  their  attempts  upon  the  rights  of  peoples  and  upon  in- 
ternational convictions.     The  struggle  will  be  short  and  decisive.     The  God  of 
victories  will  grant  unto  us  one  that  is  brilliant  and  complete,  as  reason  and  the 
justice  of  our  cause  demand.     Spain,  that  has  the  sympathy  of  every  nation,  will 
come  out  triumphant  from  this  new  trial,  humiliating  and  dumfounding  the  ad- 
ventures of  those   States  who,  without  homogeneity  and  without  history,  only 
offer  to  humanity  shameful  traditions  and  the  spectacle  of  legislative  chambers 
wherein  there  appear  united  insolency  and  defamation,  cowardice  and  cynicism. 
"  A  fleet,  manned  by  foreigners  without  instructions  and  without  discipline,  is 
about  to  come  to  this  archipelago  with  the  wild  purpose  of  taking  away  from  you 
all  that  implies  life,  honour  and  liberty.     The  North  American  sailors  pretend  to 
be  inspired  by  a  courage  of  which  they  are  incapable,  and  they  appear  to  look 
upon  as  a  feasible  enterprise,  the  substitution  of  the  Catholic  religion,  which  you 
profess,  by  that  of  Protestantism ;  to  treat  you  as  tribes  refractory  to  civilization, 
to  possess  themselves  of  your  riches,  as  if  the  right  of  ownership  were  unknown 
to  you;  to  seize,  in  a  word,  those  among  you  whom  they  may  consider  useful  to 
man  their  ships,  or  to  work  their  lands  and  carry  on  their  industries.     Vain  de- 
sign !     Ridiculous  boasting ! 

1  Bible  Work  in  the  Philippines,  A.  B.  S.  Series  No.  3,  p.  8 ;  Lala,  The 
Philippine  Islands,  pp.  57-70,  174-198.  Bowring,  A  Visit  to  the  Philippine 
Islands,  Ch.  XXI. 


500  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"  Your  indomitable  bravery  will  suffice  to  prevent  them  from  daring  to  at- 
tempt, much  less  to  realize  them.  Ye  will  not  consent,  no,  that  the  religion 
which  ye  profess  be  scoffed  at,  nor  that  impetuous  feet  shall  desecrate  the 
temple  of  the  true  God,  nor  that  unbelief  shall  demolish  the  sacred  images 
which  ye  adore.  The  aggressors  shall  not  profane  the  tomb  of  your  fathers; 
they  shall  not  satisfy  their  impure  passions  at  the  cost  of  the  honour  of  your 
wives  and  daughters;  they  shall  not  seize  the  property  that  your  self-denial  has 
accumulated  to  maintain  your  lives;  they  shall  not  realize,  no,  none  of  those 
crimes  begotten  to  their  wickedness  and  avarice,  because  your  valour  and  your 
patriotism  suffice  to  frighten  and  overwhelm  the  people,  who,  calling  themselves 
civilized  and  cultured,  have  resorted  to  the  extermination  of  the  aborigines  of 
North  America,  without  making  the  effort  to  bring  them  to  civilization  and 
progress. 

"  Filipinos,  prepare  for  the  struggle.  For,  united  under  the  protection  of  the 
glorious  Spanish  flag,  always  covered  with  laurels,  we  will  fight  with  the  convic- 
tion that  victory  will  crown  our  efforts,  and  we  will  answer  the  intimidation  of 
our  enemies  with  the  decisive  action  of  the  Christian  and  patriot  at  the  shouts 
of  «  Viva  Espafia ! ' 

"  Augustin,  Your  General."  ' 

The  Government  was  bad  enough.  But  bad  as  it  was,  the  Church 
was  even  worse.  Indeed,  as  these  quotations  have  indicated,  the 
Government  was  simply  the  tool  of  the  Church  and  the  Church 
authorities  were  the  real  rulers  of  the  islands.  Mr.  Foreman  asserts 
this  unequivocally.  "  The  real  rulers  of  the  islands  are  the  four 
corporations  of  friars — namely,  the  Augustin,  Dominican,  Franciscan, 
and  Recoleto  orders.  Their  influence  has  been  predominant  since 
the  foundation  of  the  colony.  In  times  gone  by,  there  have  been 
most  fierce  contests  between  the  governors  and  the  monastic  orders, 
in  which  the  former  have  almost  invariably  been  the  losers.  One 
Governor-General,  Bustamente,  was  murdered  in  his  palace  at  the 
instigation  of  the  holy  friars,  who  followed  up  his  dead  body,  and 
hooted  as  it  was  being  dragged  through  the  streets  of  Manila.  They 
caused  Governor-General  Solano  to  be  poisoned.  Only  last  year,  a 
certain  Father  Piernavieja,  who  had  committed  two  murders  in  the 
provinces  and  was  still  permitted  to  say  mass,  was  put  to  death  by 
the  rebels.  Any  Governor-General  who  displeases  the  monks  is  re- 
called. In  recent  times,  General  Despujols  had  to  leave  in  1892, 
after  eight  months  of  office,  because  he  ceased  to  be  persona  grata  to 

1  Report  of  the  United  States  Philippine  Commission  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
for  the  period  from  December  /,  /goo,  to  October  /j,  /go/,  Part  I,  p.  170. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  501 

the  priests.  A  native,  Dr.  Rizal,  had  written  and  published  some 
facts  about  the  monastic  orders,  and  Despujols  refused  to  have  this 
man  put  to  death  for  it.  Then  again,  he  ordered  a  search  to  be 
made  in  a  convent  of  the  Augustin  friars,  and  there  found  a  printing- 
press  and  seditious  leaflets  being  printed  for  the  priests,  who  intended 
by  distributing  them  to  attribute  to  the  natives  an  attempted  revolt. 
General  Blanco  (now  in  Havana)  was  recalled  at  the  instigation  of 
the  friars,  because  he  proved  to  be  too  humane  for  them  when  the 
rebellion  broke  out.  Finally,  they  succeeded  in  having  appointed  a 
Governor-General  after  their  own  hearts,  Camilo  Polavieja,  through 
whom  they  had  Dr.  Rizal  above  mentioned,  executed  in  Manila  in 
January  of  last  year.     .     .     ."1 

What  was  true  of  Manila,  was  true  of  the  islands  generally.  The 
Taft  Philippine  Commission  Report  of  November  30,  1900,  dealt 
carefully  and  explicitly  with  this  point  : 

"  The  friar  as  a  parish  priest  was  usually  the  only  man  of  intelligence  and 
education  who  knew  both  the  native  dialect  and  the  Spanish  language  well  in 
his  parish.  His  position  as  the  spiritual  guide  of  the  people  necessarily  led  to 
his  acting  as  intermediary  between  them  and  the  rest  of  the  world  in  secular 
matters.  In  only  a  few  of  the  parishes  was  there  any  other  Spanish  representa- 
tive of  the  Government  of  Spain  than  the  friar  priest.  At  first  actually,  and 
afterwards  by  law,  he  came  to  discharge  many  civil  functions  and  to  supervise, 
correct  or  veto  anything  which  was  done  or  sought  to  be  done  in  the  pueblo 
which  was  his  parish.  The  provincial  of  the  Franciscan  order  describes  his  civil 
functions  as  follows : 

"  '  The  following  may  be  mentioned  as  among  the  principal  duties  or  powers 
exercised  by  the  parish  priest :  He  was  inspector  of  primary  schools  ;  president 
of  the  health  board  and  board  of  charities  ;  president  of  the  board  of  urban 
taxation ;  inspector  of  taxation ;  previously,  he  was  the  actual  president,  but 
lately  the  honorary  president  of  the  board  of  public  works. 

"  '  He  certified  the  correctness  of  the  cedulas,  seeing  that  they  conformed  to  the 
entries  in  the  parish  books.  They  did  not  have  civil  registration  here,  and  so 
they  had  to  depend  upon  the  books  of  the  parish  priest.  These  books  were  sent 
in  for  the  purpose  of  this  cedula  taxation,  but  were  not  received  by  the 
authorities  unless  vised  by  the  priest. 

"  '  He  was  president  of  the  board  of  statistics  because  he  was  the  only  person 
who  had  any  education.  He  was  asked  to  do  this  work  so  that  better  results 
could   be   obtained.     It  was  against  the  will  of  the  parish  priest  to  do  this,  but 

1  Contemporary  Review,  July,  1898,  Article,  "Spain  and  the  Philippine 
Islands,"  pp.  26f.;  See  also  Younghusband,  The  Philippines  and  Round  About, 
Ch.  XI. 


502  Missions  and  Modern  History 

he  could  only  do  as  he  was  told.  If  they  refused  they  were  told  that  they  were 
unpatriotic  and  not  Spaniards.  If  they  had  declined,  they  would  have  been  re- 
moved from  their  charge. 

"  '  He  was  president  of  the  census-taking  of  the  town.  Under  the  Spanish 
law,  every  man  had  to  be  furnished  with  a  certificate  of  character.  If  a  man 
was  imprisoned  and  he  was  from  another  town,  they  would  send  to  that  other 
town  for  his  antecedents,  and  the  court  would  examine  whether  they  were  good 
or  bad.  They  would  not  be  received,  however,  unless  the  parish  priest  had  his 
vise  on  them.     The  priest  also  certified  as  to  the  civil  status  of  persons. 

"  '  Every  year,  they  drew  lots  for  those  who  were  to  serve  in  the  army,  every 
fifth  man  drawn  being  taken.  The  parish  priest  would  certify  as  to  that  man's 
condition.  .  .  .  Every  year  they  would  go  to  what  they  called  the  sacramen- 
tal books  and  get  the  names  of  all  those  who  were  over  twenty  years  of  age. 
This  list  being  certified  to  by  the  parish  priest,  the  names  were  placed  in  an  urn 
and  then  drawn.  Every  fifth  man  was  taken.  .  .  .  They  disliked  the 
service.  Many  of  them  would  take  to  the  woods  and  the  civil  guard  would 
have  to  go  after  them  and  bring  them  back.  They  would  be  put  in  jail  and 
guarded  until  they  could  be  taken  to  the  capital  city.  There  were  many  cases 
of  desertion.     .     .     . 

" «  By  law,  the  priest  had  to  be  present  when  there  were  elections  for  munici- 
pal offices.  Very  often  the  parish  priest  did  not  want  to  go,  and  the  people 
would  come  to  him  and  say,  "  Come,  for  there  will  be  disturbances  and  you  will 
settle  many  difficulties." 

"  '  He  was  the  censor  of  the  municipal  budgets  before  they  were  sent  to  the 
provincial  governor. 

"<  He  was  the  president  of  the  prison  board  and  inspector  (in  turn)  of  the 
food  provided  for  the  prisoners. 

"  '  He  was  a  member  of  the  provincial  board.  Besides  the  parish  priest,  there 
were  two  curates  who  served  on  this  board.  Before  the  provincial  board  came 
all  matters  relating  to  public  works  and  other  cognate  matters.  All  estimates 
for  public  buildings  in  the  municipalities  were  submitted  to  this  board. 

"  '  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  board  for  partitioning  crown  lands.  After 
the  land  was  surveyed  and  divided  and  a  person  wanted  to  sell  his  land,  he 
would  present  his  certificate  and  the  board  would  pass  on  the  question  whether 
or  not  he  was  the  owner.     .     .     . 

"«  In  some  cases,  the  parish  priests  in  the  capitals  of  the  provinces  would  act 
as  auditors.  In  some  of  these  places  there  would  be  only  the  administrator,  and 
then  the  curate  would  come  in  and  act  as  auditor. 

"  «  A  great  many  of  the  duties  I  am  now  enumerating  were  given  to  the  priests 
by  the  municipal  law  of  Maura. 

" '  He  was  also  counsellor  for  the  municipal  counsel  when  that  body  met.  They 
would  notify  him  that  they  were  going  to  hold  a  meeting  and  invite  him  to  be  present. 

"  '  The  priest  was  the  supervisor  of  the  election  of  the  police  force.  This  also 
had  to  be  submitted  to  the  provincial  governor. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  503 

" «  He  was  the  examiner  of  the  scholars  attending  the  first  and  second  grades 
in  the  public  schools. 

" « He  was  the  censor  of  the  plays,  comedies  and  dramas  in  the  language  of 
the  country,  deciding  whether  they  were  against  the  public  peace  or  the  public 
morals.     These  plays  were  presented  at  the  various  fiestas  of  the  people. 

" '  Besides  the  above,  there  were  other  small  things  which  devolved  upon  the 
priest.' 

"  It  is  easy  to  see  from  this  that  the  priest  was  not  only  the  spiritual  guide, 
but  that  he  was  in  every  sense  the  municipal  ruler. 

"  It  further  appeared  from  evidence  of  other  friars  that  whenever  a 
resident  of  any  pueblo  was  suspected  of  being  a  disturber  of  the  peace  or  a 
plotter  against  the  Government,  or  a  dangerous  character  in  other  respects,  no 
action  was  taken  until  the  parish  priest  was  consulted  by  the  heads  of  the  insular 
Government. 

"During  the  years  immediately  preceding  1898,  there  were  many  deporta- 
tions of  residents,  of  the  various  pueblos  to  the  far  distant  southern  islands  of 
the  group,  and  whether  unjustly  or  not,  the  parish  priests  were  charged  by  the 
people  with  being  instrumental  in  bringing  these  about,  and  it  is  said  by 
anti-friar  witnesses,  though  denied  by  the  friars,  that  in  most  of  the  cases, 
the  deportations  were  initiated  by  the  friars,  who  for  this  reason  came  to  be 
looked  on  by  the  people  as  having  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  their 
parishioners. 

"  The  archbishop  and  bishops  formed  part  of  what  was  known  in  Manila  as 
the  board  of  authorities.  The  duties  of  this  board  were  principally  to  in- 
vestigate matters  of  urgent  moment  and  in  times  of  crises  to  advise  the  Gover- 
nor-General. The  archbishop  and  bishops  constituted  the  section  of  the  board 
on  «  Government  and  fomento '  (analogous  to  our  Department  of  the  Interior). 
The  archbishop  and  bishops  and  provincials  of  the  religious  orders  also  formed 
a  part  of  the  council  of  administration,  a  body  analogous  to  the  Council  of  State 
of  Spain  or  France,  charged  with  advising  the  Governor-General.  Each  order 
had  a  leading  officer  resident  in  Madrid,  through  whom  the  court  of  Spain  could 
be  quickly  and  directly  reached  by  the  order  in  the  Philippines,  without  the  in- 
tervention of  the  civil  or  military  authorities  of  the  islands.  The  participation 
of  the  friars  in  the  affairs  of  the  parish,  provincial  and  insular  Governments  was 
much  more  effective  to  secure  entire  control  of  the  political  situation  than  if  the 
priests  had  been  merely  secular  and  not  bound  together  with  the  close  associa- 
tion of  the  monastic  orders. 

"  The  truth  is  that  the  whole  Government  of  Spain  in  these  islands  rested  on 
the  friars.  To  use  the  expression  of  the  provincial  of  the  Augustinians,  the  friars 
were  '  the  pedestal  or  foundation  of  the  sovereignty  of  Spain  in  these  islands,' 
which  being  removed,  '  the  whole  structure  would  topple  over.'  The  number  of 
Spanish  troops  in  these  islands  did  not  exceed  5,000,  until  the  revolution.  The 
tenure  of  office  of  the  friar  curate  was  permanent.  There  was  but  little  rotation 
of  priests  among  the  parishes.     Once  settled  in  a  parish,  a  priest  usually  contin- 


£04  Missions  and   Modern  History 

ued  there  until  superannuation.  He  was,  therefore,  a  constant  political  factor 
for  a  generation.  The  same  was  true  of  the  archbishop  and  bishops.  The  civil 
and  military  officers  of  Spain  in  the  islands  were  here  for  not  longer  than  four 
years  and  more  often  for  a  less  period.  The  friars,  priests  and  bishops,  there- 
fore, constituted  a  solid,  powerful,  permanent,  well-organized  political  force  in  the 
islands  which  dominated  policies.  The  stay  of  those  officers  who  attempted  to 
pursue  a  course  at  variance  with  that  deemed  wise  by  the  orders  was  invariably 
shortened  by  monastic  influence."1 

Under  this  rule  of  the  Roman  Church,  the  Philippines  became 
what  they  were.  The  mass  of  the  people  were  docile  and  content. 
They  were  ignorant  children,  kept  so  by  the  Church.  There  was  no 
real  education. 

"  Under  Spanish  rule,"  says  the  Taft  Commission,  "  there  was  established  in 
these  islands,  a  system  of  primary  schools.  The  Spanish  regulations  provided 
that  there  should  be  one  male  and  one  female  primary  school-teacher  for  each 
5,000  inhabitants.  It  is  clearly  shown  in  the  report  of  the  first  Philippine  Com- 
mission that  even  this  inadequate  provision  was  never  carried  out.  They  say  : 
1  Taking  the  entire  population  at  8,000,000,  we  find  that  there  is  but  one  teacher 
to  each  4,179  inhabitants.'  There  were  no  schoolhouses,  no  modern  furniture, 
and,  until  the  Americans  came,  there  were  no  good  text-books.  The  schools 
were  and  are  now  held  in  the  residences  of  the  teachers,  or  in  buildings  hired  by 
the  municipalities  and  used  by  the  principals  as  dwellings.  In  some  of  the 
schools,  there  were  wooden  benches  and  tables,  but  it  was  not  at  all  unusual  to 
find  a  school  without  any  seats  for  the  pupils.  In  these  primary  schools  reading, 
writing,  sacred  history  and  the  catechism  were  taught.  Except  in  very  few 
towns,  the  four  elementary  arithmetical  processes  were  attempted,  and  in  a  few 
towns  a  book  on  geography  was  used  as  a  reading  book.  Girls  were  taught  em- 
broidery and  needlework.  From  the  beginning,  the  schools  were  entirely  under 
the  supervision  of  the  religious  orders,  who  were  disposed  to  emphasize  secondary 
and  higher  education  for  a  few  pupils,  rather  than  to  further  and  promote  the 
primary  education  of  the  masses.  The  result  of  this  policy  is  that  a  few  persons 
have  stood  out  prominently  as  educated  Filipinos,  while  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  have  either  not  been  educated  at  all  or  furnished  only  with  the  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge,  acquiring  merely  the  mechanical  processes  of  reading  and 
writing.  .  .  .  It  is  stated  on  good  authority  that  when  the  Spaniards  came 
here,  several  of  the  tribes  of  the  Philippine  Islands  could  read  and  write  their 
own  language.  At  the  present  time,  after  three  hundred  years  of  Spanish  domi- 
nation, the  bulk  of  the  people  cannot  do  this.  The  Spanish  minister  for  the 
colonies,  in  a  report  made  December  5,  1870,  points  out  that  by  the  process  of 
absorption,  matters  of  education  had  become  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the 

1  Report  of  the  Taft  Philippine  Commission,  Fifty-sixth  Congress,  Second  Ses- 
sion, Document  No.  uz,  pp.  24-27. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  505 

religious  orders.  He  says :  '  While  every  acknowledgment  should  be  made 
of  their  services,  in  earlier  times,  their  narrow,  exclusively  religious  system  of 
education,  and  their  imperviousness  to  modern  or  external  ideas  and  influences, 
which  every  day  become  more  and  more  evident,  rendered  secularization  of  in- 
struction necessary.'  ...  It  is  staled  that  in  1897,  there  were  in  these 
islands  2,167  public  schools.  The  ineffectiveness  of  these  schools  will  be  seen 
when  it  is  remembered  that  a  school  under  the  Spanish  regime  was  a  strictly  sec- 
tarian, ungraded  school,  with  no  prescribed  course  of  study  and  no  definite  stand- 
ards for  each  year,  and  that  they  were  in  charge  of  duly  certified  but  hardly 
professionally  trained  or  progressive  teachers,  housed  in  unsuitable  and  unsanitary 
buildings."1  The  former  Commission  reported,  "  Public  education  in  the  Phil- 
ippines is  one  of  the  branches  of  the  administration  which  was  most  neglected  by 
the  Spanish  Government."''  In  its  second  report,  the  Taft  Commission  de- 
clared, "  In  our  last  report,  we  pointed  out  that  the  great  body  of  the  people  were 
ignorant,  superstitious  and  at  present  incapable  of  understanding  any  Government 
but  that  of  absolutism.  The  intelligence  and  education  of  the  people  may  be 
largely  measured  by  knowledge  of  the  Spanish  language.  Less  than  ten  per 
cent,  of  the  people  speak  Spanish.  With  Spaniards  in  control  of  these  islands 
for  four  hundred  years  and  with  Spanish  spoken  in  all  official  avenues,  nothing 
could  be  more  significant  of  the  lack  of  real  intelligence  among  the  people  than 
this  statement.     .     .     ." 3 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  of  the  moral  condition  of  the  Philip- 
pines or  of  the  Catholic  priesthood  there.  It  is  enough  to  have  in 
mind  the  political  and  educational  conditions,  and  then  to  remember 
that  these  were  wholly  satisfactory  to  the  Catholic  Church.  In  the 
report  of  the  First  Philippine  Commission,  there  was  presented  a  long 
paper  on  the  "Propagation  of  Catholicism"  in  the  Philippines,  fur- 
nished by  the  Jesuit  fathers  of  Manila,  in  which  they  frankly  ex- 
pressed their  delight  and  contentment  with  the  conditions  : 

<<  What  a  beautiful  page  for  the  Catholic  Church  the  history  of  the  propagation 
of  Christianity  in  the  Philippines  presents  !  What  fruitfulness  on  the  part  of  the 
Church !  What  glory  for  the  missionaries  !  What  honour  for  Spain !  The 
monks  arrived  at  these  islands  in  the  year  1565.  They  found  in  them  about 
2,000,000  inhabitants,  some  of  them  wholly  savage,  cannibals,  semi-barbarians; 
all  of  them  pagans,  idolaters,  sunk  in  the  densest  darkness  of  superstition,  slavery 

1  Report  of  the  Taft  Philippine  Commission,  Fifty-sixth  Congress,  Second  Ses- 
sion, Document  No.  112,  pp.  105,  106. 

2  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  iqoo,  Vol.  II,  p.  456. 

3  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission  to  the  Secretary  of  War  for  the  period 
from  December  1,  iqoo,  to  October  ij,  iqoi,  Part  I,  pp.  19T.  ;  See  Brown,  Report 
of  a  Visitation  to  the  Philippine  Mission  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Second 
Edition,  p.  63. 


506  Missions  and  Modern  History 

and  vice.  But  what  was  the  condition  of  the  Philippines  one  century  later  ? 
The  barbarians  had  already  been  reduced  to  civil  and  orderly  life  ;  idolatry  had 
disappeared;  slavery  had  been  abolished;  matrimony  had  been  sanctified; 
thousands  of  children  attended  the  schools,  magnificent  churches  had  been 
erected,  and  1,000,000  inhabitants  had  received  the  waters  of  baptism  and  prac- 
ticed the  Christian  religion,  just  as  those  born  in  Europe.  In  the  succeeding 
century,  the  number  of  Catholics  became  2,000,000  and  soon  6,000,000. 

"  This  is  the  work  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  of  the  Catholic  Spanish  nation 
true  mothers,  the  one  spiritual  and  the  other  temporal,  of  this  fortunate  colony ; 
the  most  pious  spirit  of  both  dictating  the  benevolent  dispositions  and  concessions 
of  the  Popes  and  of  the  Philippine  episcopate,  and  of  the  most  magnanimous  and 
humanitarian  laws  of  the  never  sufficiently  praised  code  of  the  Indies,  so  suited 
to  the  capacity  and  so  protective  of  the  rights  of  the  Indians,  that  it  seems  to 
come  rather  from  the  good  heart  of  a  Pontiff  than  from  a  temporal  monarch — a 
true  model  of  Christian  secular  legislation.  These  two  powers  and  legislations 
always  working  with  the  most  admirable  harmony  during  the  first  three  centuries, 
were  the  two  agents,  but  in  spirit  one,  of  this  work  of  culture,  which  has  no 
equal  in  the  history  of  colonial  civilization."  ' 

Into  this  Philippine  paradise  of  civilization  and  culture,  the  Cath- 
olic priests  were  zealous  that  no  irreligious  or  disturbing  influence 
should  be  allowed  to  come.  It  is  of  importance  to  set  forth  their 
spirit  in  the  matter.  On  April  28,  1898,  the  Archbishop  of  Manila 
issued  an  appeal  in  which  he  said  : 

"  In  these  moments  of  trial,  it  is  our  duty  to  inform  ye,  beloved  sons,  that  your 
faith  exacts  from  you  the  compliance  with  two  duties— to  pray  and  to  fight.  A 
heterodox  people,  possessed  of  the  blackest  rancour  and  all  the  abject  passions  that 
heresy  engenders,  purposes  to  attack  us.  They  hate  in  us  that  which  we  most 
value— our  religion,  the  religion  of  our  fathers,  left  to  us  as  a  most  precious  legacy, 
that  we  are  obliged  to  retain  intact,  even  at  the  cost  of  our  lives.  If  for  the  evil 
of  our  sins,  God  should  permit  the  intentions  of  the  aggressor  to  prosper,  the 
desolation  and  ruin  of  our  people  would  be  complete  ;  soon  would  they  see  the 
heartrending  spectacle  of  their  temples  razed,  the  altars  of  the  true  God  profaned, 
and  our  religion  swept  away  by  the  diversity  of  sects  that  the  heretic  banner  pro- 
tects ;  the  peace  of  our  homes  and  all  the  wealth  of  our  people,  united  and  en- 
nobled by  the  practices  and  teachings  of  the  Christian  faith,  would  completely 
disappear,  impelled  by  the  implacable  hatred  that  our  enemies  profess  for  the  re- 
ligion and  races  differing  from  its  own.     .     .     ."  2 

Later,  on  May  8th,  the  Archbishop  issued  a  yet  more  eager  appeal : 

»  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  igoo,  Vol.  IV,  p.  104. 
9  Ibid.,  /goo,  /go/,  Part  I,  p.  172. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  507 

"  To  the  Faithful :  The  North  American  Fleet  appeared  at  dawn  upon  the 
fateful  day  to  this  our  country,  my  beloved  sons,  lording  it  over  our  beautiful  bay 
to  accomplish  in  a  few  moments  and  in  spite  of  the  heroism  of  our  sailors,  the  de- 
struction of  our  ships  and  to  succeed  in  planting  in  one  of  our  strongholds,  the 
blessed  soil  of  the  fatherland,  the  enemy's  flag.  Ye  know  who  it  is,  that  full  of 
pride,  thus  trampling  upon  our  rights,  seeks  to  overwhelm  ye,  and  ye  also  know 
what  his  purposes  are.  He  is  the  foreigner  who  wishes  to  subject  us  to  his  harsh 
yoke  ;  he  is  the  heretic  who  wishes  to  tear  us  from  our  religion  and  snatch  us 
from  the  maternal  bosom  of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  he  is  the  insatiable  trader 
who  desires  to  enlarge  his  fortune  with  the  ruin  of  Spain  and  its  possessions. 

"  Poor  Spain,  if  the  invader  should  succeed  in  his  purpose.  Poor  Filipinos, 
the  day  that  the  North  American  establishes  a  permanent  Government  here. 
Unfortunate  Indians,  subjugated  by  the  people  who  lack  the  Catholic  faith  of 
Spain,  who  have  not  the  maternal  blood,  nor  the  noble  magnanimity,  nor  the 
community  of  interests  and  of  history,  dating  back  to  more  than  three  centuries, 
nor  the  mixture  of  blood  that  circulates  through  the  veins  of  many  of  us,  who  in 
a  hundred  glorious  deeds  have  shed  it  to  our  common  defence,  united  by  a  com- 
mon brotherhood,  the  sons  of  the  mother  country  and  of  the  colony.  Soon,  we 
will  see  an  insuperable  barrier  established  between  ye  and  your  vainglorious 
masters.  No  longer  will  there  be  for  you  employment  nor  office  nor  any  partici- 
pation whatsoever  in  the  Government  and  administration  of  the  pueblos.  Ye  will 
become  a  separate  group  in  civil  life,  ye  will  be  villified  as  pariahs,  exploited  as 
miserable  colonists,  reduced  to  the  condition  of  labourers,  aye,  and  even  to  that  of 
beasts  and  machines,  fed  with  a  handful  of  rice  or  corn,  which  our  lords  will  throw 
in  your  faces  as  daily  rations,  so  that  he  may  not  be  deprived  of  the  product  of 
your  sweat,  while  he  will  be  regaled  as  a  prince,  with  the  fruits  and  treasure  of 
an  estate  that  is  yours,  not  his.  Ah,  and  this  is  not  all,  nor  the  worst,  for  ye  will 
soon  see  your  temples  in  ruin  or  converted  into  Protestant  chapels,  where  oh, 
sorrow,  the  God  of  Eucharist  is  dethroned  and  where  the  Virgin  Mary,  our  sweet- 
est mother,  has  no  pedestal.  The  cross  will  disappear  from  your  cemeteries,  the 
crucifix  from  your  schools,  as  also  the  ministers  of  the  true  God  who  made  ye 
Christians  in  baptism,  who  have  so  many  times  absolved  ye  from  your  sins,  who 
have  united  ye  in  holy  matrimony,  who  should  minister  unto  thee,  console  and 
assist  ye  in  your  last  hour,  and  thereafter  when  ye  are  dead  apply  the  last  rites 
of  the  holy  church.  Ye,  perhaps,  with  heroic  faith  and  valour,  will  continue  within 
your  hearts  being  Catholics  as  before  or  firmer  than  heretofore,  who  can  tell. 
But  what  would  become  of  the  flesh  of  your  flesh,  your  tender  sons,  especially  after 
they  had  been  fatherless,  in  the  midst  of  a  Protestant  nation,  Protestant  legisla- 
tion, faith,  teachings,  and  customs,  and  the  free  exhibition  and  propaganda  of 
vice  and  error  ?  Ah,  what  will  prevent  there  being  within  a  period  of  half  a 
century  no  more  Christian  practices  or  beliefs  in  all  this  country,  nor  that  not  one 
should  be  left  who  would  make  a  sign  of  the  Saviour's  cross  upon  his  forehead. 
Poor  Filipinos,  unhappy  in  this  life  and  unhappy  in  eternal  life. 

"  Fortunately,  beloved  Filipino  people,  at  the  roar  of  the  enemy's  cannon  and 


£08  Missions  and  Modern   History 

at  the  shouts  of  alarm  and  at  the  watchword  of  your  governors,  ye  have  under- 
stood all  the  risk  that  ye  run.  As  one  man  ye  will  prepare  your  defence,  and  as 
one  heart,  ye  will  lift  your  prayers  to  heaven.  This,  this  is  certainly  the  only 
way  of  salvation.  To  arms  !  and  to  prayer  as  one  man  !  To  arms  !  because  the 
Spanish  people,  though  debilitated,  when  wounded  in  their  patriotism  and  the 
defence  of  their  religion,  are  capable  of  most  glorious  deeds.  Let  us  pray,  then, 
for  even  the  strong  and  those  who  have  justice  on  their  side  must  remember  that 
it  is  always  a  God  who  gives  the  victory,  for  it  is  not  prayer  alone,  nor  is  it  alone 

the  battle military  effort  and  the  help  of  God  combined.     God  and  His  angels 

and  saints  be  with  us,  for  if  it  is  so  come  to  pass,  who  can  vanquish  us  ? 

"  Moreover,  to  the  end  that  prayer  may  become  more  general  in  concord  and 
more  efficacious,  it  has  appeared  to  us  an  inspiration  from  on  high  the  idea  of 
consecrating  the  sacred  heart  of  Jesus  throughout  all  the  Philippine  Archipelago, 
and  to  offer  it  when  we  shall  have  seen  ourselves  free  from  all  our  present  tribu- 
lations, worship  of  an  exceptionally  devout  and  magnificent  sort  upon  the  day 
when  the  Church  shall  celebrate  that  feast,  on  Friday  next  after  the  Corpus 
Christi,  the  17th  of  next  June,  or  some  other  date,  if  that  were  impossible  and 
should  be  considered  more  timely  to  postpone  it.  By  this  and  aside  from  the 
private  consecration  of  these  islands,  which  we  have  already  made  on  the  first 
Friday  of  this  month  upon  offering  to  God  in  the  holy  mass  of  the  sacred  body  of 
Jesus,  we  did  so,  not  only  in  our  own  name  and  that  of  our  other  diocesan  prel- 
ates, but  also  in  that  of  the  most  excellent  Governor-General,  who,  no  less  fervent 
Christian  than  prudent  patriot  and  great  military  commander,  awaits  from  God 
and  now  offers  to  God  a  triumph  through  mediation  of  the  deific  heart,  and  thus 
interpreting  the  desires  of  the  mass  of  the  people  of  the  islands,  that  is  everywhere 
so  devout,  and  invoking  the  intercession  of  all  the  patron  saints  of  the  islands 
and  principally  of  the  sovereign  queen  of  all,  the  most  Holy  Virgin  of  the  rosary. 
«  In  the  deep-rooted  hope  of  solemnizing  very  soon  this  consecration  and  of- 
fertory, for  the  present  deprived  from  us,  we  give  to  all  beloved  sons  our  benedic- 
tion in  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  » 

All  allowance  should  be  made  for  ignorance  even  in  an  Archbishop 
of  Manila  and  also  for  the  forms  in  which  knowledge  sometimes  ap- 
peals to  ignorance  ;  but  even  with  such  allowance,  the  spirit  of  these 
appeals  is  very  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  and  they  il- 
lustrate the  zeal  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  exclude  from  the  islands 
both  civil  and  religious  intrusion. 

The  Church  having  always  been  identified  with  Spanish  rule,  just 
as  it  identified  itself  in  these  appeals  of  the  Archbishop,  who  saw  the 
doom  of  the  Church  in  the  fall  of  Spanish  authority,  it  was  most 
natural  that  the  Filipinos  should  demand  at  least  the  withdrawal  of  the 

1  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  December  /goo  to  October  /go/,  Part  I, 
pp.  i68f. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  509 

representatives  of  the  Church  who  had  always  been  to  them  the  em- 
bodiment of  their  political  oppression,  and  that  once  thinking  of  free- 
dom, they  should  ask  for  as  much  of  it  as  they  desired  and  could  de- 
fine. This  was  what  they  did.  The  peril  to  the  Church  which  the 
Archbishop  of  Manila  dreaded  lay  not  in  American  conquest,  but  in 
Philippine  revolution.  When  in  November,  1898,  General  Otis  tried 
to  secure  from  Aguinaldo  the  release  of  some  Spanish  priests,  Aguin- 
aldo  refused.  "  He  charged  that  the  religious  corporations  of  the 
Philippines  had  acquired  large  agricultural  colonies  by  means  of  fraud ; 
the  products  of  these  lands,  he  stated,  were  first  granted,  but  in  the 
course  of  time  possession  was  taken  of  the  lands,  and  they  have  ever 
since  been  held  by  the  religious  corporations,  which  were  aided  by 
the  Spanish  authorities ;  he  stated  that  the  privilege  of  absolving 
belongs  solely  to  the  secular  clergy,  to  which  the  Filipino  priests 
belong,  and  that  this  privilege  had  been  absorbed  by  the  religious 
orders;  he  stated  that  the  primary  causes  of  the  Philippine  revolution 
were  the  ecclesiastical  corporations,  which,  taking  advantage  of  the 
corrupt  Spanish  Government,  robbed  the  country,  preventing  liberty 
and  progress ;  he  claimed  for  the  Filipino  priests  the  right  to  appoint- 
ment to  the  duties  of  bishops  and  parochial  priests ;  he  denounced 
as  dangerous  to  the  interests  of  the  Philippines,  the  allowance  to  the 
regular  Spanish  clergy  to  continue  their  rule  in  the  islands,  believing 
that  they  would  incite  a  counter  revolution  in  the  interests  of  Spain."  ' 
And  a  good  part  of  the  demands  of  the  people  for  independence, 
expressed  in  the  Tagalog  insurrection  before  the  capture  of  Manila, 
had  to  do  with  some  abridgment  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Church.  The 
first  Commission  reports  these  demands  as  covering  : 

"  I.  Expulsion  of  the  friars  and  restitution  to  the  townships  of  lands  which 
the  friars  have  appropriated,  dividing  the  incumbencies  held  by  them,  as  well  as 
the  episcopal  sees,  equally  between  peninsular  and  insular  secular  priests. 

"  2.  Spain  must  concede  to  us,  as  she  has  to  Cuba,  parliamentary  representa- 
tion, freedom  of  the  press,  toleration  of  all  religious  sects,  laws  common  with  hers, 
and  administrative  and  economic  autonomy. 

"  3.  Equality  in  treatment  and  pay  between  peninsular  and  insular  civil 
servants. 

"4.  Restitution  of  all  lands  appropriated  by  the  friars  to  the  townships,  or  to 
the  original  owners,  or  in  default  of  finding  such  owners,  the  state  is  to  put  them 

1  Report  of  Philippine  Commission,  igoo,  Vol.  I,  p.  130. 


51  o  Missions  and  Modern  History 

up  to  public  auction  in  small  lots  of  a  value  within  the  reach  of  all  and  payable 
within  four  years,  the  same  as  the  present  state  lands. 

"  5.  Abolition  of  the  Government  authorities'  power  to  banish  citizens,  as  well 
as  unjust  measures  against  Filipinos ;  legal  equality  for  all  persons,  whether 
peninsular  or  insular,  under  the  civil  as  well  as  the  penal  code."  1 

The  first  great  question,  accordingly,  with  which  the  United  States 
Government  had  to  deal  in  the  Philippines  was  a  religious  question, 
namely,  the  question  of  its  attitude  towards  the  Catholic  Church  and 
the  friars  on  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  towards  the  Protestant 
Churches,  which  of  course  went  in  with  the  American  occupation,  and 
the  implacable  opposition  of  the  people  to  the  return  of  the  friars  to 
the  parishes  from  which  they  had  fled  with  the  fall  of  Spanish  rule. 

The  insurgents  had  included  in  their  demands  a  requirement  of 
religious  liberty.  That  was  one  of  the  fundamental  elements  of  the 
American  spirit,  and  from  the  outset  it  was  asserted  to  be  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  the  American  program.  Mr.  McKinley  embodied  it 
in  his  first  statement.  There  had  been  no  religious  liberty  or  tolera- 
tion. No  Protestant  preacher  was  allowed  in  the  islands.  There 
could  be  no  Protestant  funeral  services  or  marriages.  The  Bible  was 
not  admitted.  Dr.  Hykes,  the  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society 
in  Shanghai,  says  :  "  An  attempt  was  made  in  1889  by  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  who  in  March  of  that  year  sent  two  colporteurs, 
M.  Alonzo  Lallave  and  F.  de  P.  Castells,  to  Manila  to  try  and  dis- 
tribute the  Word  of  God.  Shortly  after  their  arrival,  and  after  dis- 
tributing a  few  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  they  were  poisoned  in  the 
Hotel  de  Oriente,  at  which  they  were  stopping.  While  I  was  in 
Manila  I  met  an  old  resident,  who  told  me  that  he  knew  Lallave,  who 
had  formerly  been  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  in  the  Philippines,  and 
he  spoke  in  the  highest  terms  of  his  sterling  character.  This  gentle- 
man also  told  me  that  the  hatred  of  the  priests  towards  Lallave  was  so 
bitter  that  his  body  was  refused  burial,  and  lay  for  several  days  in 
the  cemetery  until  it  was  in  an  advanced  stage  of  decomposition. 
Castells  did  not  die  from  the  effects  of  his  poisoning,  but  was  thrown 
into  prison  at  the  instigation  of  the  priests  and  afterwards  banished 
from  the  islands.  This  was  the  first  and  only  effort  made  to  sell  the 
Scriptures  in  the  Philippines."2 

1  Report  of  Philippine  Commission,  igoo,  Vol.  I,  p.  84. 

2  Bible  Work  in  the  Philippines,  A.  B.  S.  Series,  No.  3,  pp.  2of. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  5 1 1 

How  strict  was  the  quarantine  against  anything  hostile  to  the  priests 
is  illustrated  by  Mr.  Norman's  story  of  his  experience  : 

"  For  myself,  Manila  will  always  be  remembered  as  the  place  where  for  the 
first  time  I  had  my  pockets  publicly  and  officially  searched.  As  soon  as  we  an- 
chored, a  guard  of  soldiers  came  on  board  and  assisted  the  custom-house  officials 
in  minutely  examining  everything  in  our  baggage.  When  this  was  over,  I  was 
stopped  at  the  head  of  the  gangway  by  the  lieutenant  in  command  and  courteously 
informed  that  before  I  could  land  he  must  be  permitted  to  see  what  I  had  in  my 
pockets.  When  it  came  to  my  pocketbook,  he  turned  it  over,  separating  every 
piece  of  paper  in  it.  A  bystander  informed  me  that  all  this  was  to  prevent  the 
introduction  of  Mexican  dollars,  on  which  there  is  a  premium  and  which  are  pro- 
hibited of  a  date  later  than  1877,  and  a  pamphlet  attacking  the  priests,  recently 
published  in  Hongkong."  1 

Even  after  the  American  acquisition  of  the  islands,  the  Catholics 
opposed  religious  liberty,  arguing  for  the  exclusion  of  the  Protestant 
influence,  even  to  the  prohibition  of  any  public  Protestant  worship  on 
the  part  of  Americans.  This  is  frankly  set  forth  by  the  Jesuit  fathers 
of  Manila  in  the  paper  published  in  the  Report  of  the  Philippine 
Commission : 

"  Therefore,  religion — and,  consequently,  morality — being  so  universal  in  the 
Philippines,  would  it  be  advisable  to  introduce  liberty  of  religious  worship  in  this 
country  ?  If  by  freedom  of  religion  is  understood  religious  tolerance  in  fact,  by 
virtue  of  which  no  one  can  be  compelled  to  profess  Catholicism,  or  be  persecuted 
for  not  being  a  Catholic,  but  each  individual  may  privately  profess  the  religion 
which  suits  him  best,  then  this  liberty  has  always  existed  in  the  Philippines;  and 
no  Filipino  or  foreigner  has  ever  been  forced  to  embrace  the  Catholic  religion. 
But  if  by  liberty  of  religions  is  understood  the  granting  to  all  religions — for  exam- 
ple, the  worship  of  Confucius,  or  of  Mohammed — and  to  all  the  Protestant  sects 
equal  rights  to  open  schools,  erect  churches,  create  parishes,  have  processions  and 
public  ceremonies,  with  the  Catholic  Church,  we  believe  that  it  would  not  only 
not  be  advisable,  but  it  would  be  a  lamentable  measure  for  any  Government  which 
may  rule  the  destinies  of  the  Filipinos.  In  fact,  if  this  Government  should  con- 
cede this  liberty  of  religions,  it  will  make  itself  hateful  to  6,500,000  of  Filipino 
Catholics ;  because,  although  said  Government  may  not  profess  any  religion,  the 
Filipino  people  would  hold  it  responsible  for  all  the  consequences  of  this  measure, 
and  so  it  could  not  be  regarded  favourably  by  these  6,500,000  Catholics.  They 
are  fully  convinced  that  their  religion  is  the  only  true  one,  the  only  one  by  which 
man  can  be  saved;  and  if  any  Government  should  try  to  deprive  them  of 
this  religion,  which  is  their  most  precious  jewel  and  the  richest  inheritance 
that  they  have   received   from   their   superiors,  although   it  may  not  be  more 

1  Norman,  The  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  pp.  i6o,f. 


512  Missions  and  Modern  History 

than  permitting  Protestant  or  heterodox  propagandism  publicly  and  boldly,  then 
they  could  not  help  complaining,  and  disturbance  of  public  order  might  even 
result  from  it,  with  all  the  fury  and  all  the  disasters  which,  it  is  well  known, 
this  kind  of  war  usually  entails. 

"  Two  serious  difficulties  may  oppose  the  rights  of  Catholicism  in  the  Philip, 
pines.  The  first  is  the  Americans  who  are  now  governing  here,  and  the  second 
is  the  Filipinos  themselves.  The  Americans  enjoy  in  America  the  most  com- 
plete religious  liberty.  Why,  then,  should  they  not  enjoy  the  same  liberty  on 
moving  to  the  Philippines?  We  answer  that  each  citizen  should  conform  to  the 
laws  of  the  country  where  he  lives.  The  Chinese  enjoyed  the  most  complete  lib- 
erty to  erect  temples  to  Buddha  or  to  Confucius  ;  but  for  three  centuries  they  have 
not  had  such  liberty  in  Manila.  On  the  other  hand,  no  Chinese  has  been  obliged 
to  become  a  Catholic ;  and,  we  may  say  more,  no  Chinese  has  been  obliged  to 
make  a  show  of  his  religion  in  order  to  trade,  become  rich  and  return  to  die  in 
China.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Englishmen  and  Americans.  If,  in  the  Philip- 
pines, for  the  good  order  and  government  of  6,500,000  Catholics,  besides  which 
there  are  only  1,500,000  inhabitants,  idolaters  and  Mohammedans,  who  are  still  to 
be  civilized,  it  is  necessary  not  to  permit  or  to  encourage  liberty  of  religions,  the 
Government  which  rules  the  destinies  of  these  islands  should  legislate  in  this 
direction,  for  the  laws  should  be  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  the  majority  of  the 
citizens.  And  Americans  themselves  who  make  their  residence  here  should  ac- 
commodate themselves  to  this  law,  without  any  temporal  or  spiritual  injury  result- 
ing to  them  from  it,  because,  privately,  they  could  profess  the  religion  which  their 
conscience  dictates  to  them  to  be  the  true  one.  The  English  in  Malta  do  this, 
where  the  Catholic  religion  flourishes ;  and,  although  the  island  is  very  small, 
there  are  more  than  2,000  Italian  Catholic  priests  there,  better  satisfied  and  con- 
tent to  live  under  the  English  Government  than  under  the  Italian  Government. 

"  The  other  difficulty  against  the  Catholicism  of  the  Filipinos  arises  from  the 
Filipino  rebels  themselves,  who  in  their  congress  at  Malolos  proclaimed  liberty 
of  religions  and  separation  of  Church  and  State.  Why,  then,  should  not  this  re- 
ligious liberty  be  granted  to  the  Filipinos  if  they  themselves  demand  it  ?  We 
answer  that  they  also  ask  for  independence.  Will  the  Americans,  therefore,  give 
it  to  them  ?  The  majority  of  the  Philippine  insurgents  were  addicted  to  Masonry. 
They  had  agreed  a  long  time  ago  to  work  for  the  expulsion  of  the  friars,  and 
drunken  with  the  wine  of  liberty,  they  asked  for  all  liberties,  including  religious 
freedom.  These  revolutionists,  who  have  abjured  Catholicism,  how  many  are 
they  ?  They  do  not  exceed  two  dozen.  For  them  the  law  of  religious  liberty  is 
unnecessary,  because  they  do  not  profess  any.  The  Filipino  people,  that  is  to 
say,  the  6,500,000  Catholics  inscribed  in  the  parochial  registers — these  do  not  ask 
for  nor  want  religious  liberty,  nor  the  separation  of  the  Church  and  State  ;  these 
are  content  with  their  Catholicism,  and  they  do  not  desire  anything  more,  nor 
would  they  suffer  their  Government  to  overthrow  the  Catholic  unity. 

"This  we  have  heard  from  qualified  and  accredited  defenders  of  Philippine 
independence,  who  even  deny  that  the  Malolos  platform  was  the  true  expression 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  513 

of  the  will  of  that  congress ;  that  on  the  contrary  it  was  far  from  being  the  total 
and  proper  representation  of  the  Filipino  people.  This  people  have  a  horror  of 
heresies  and  of  all  religious  disturbances.  Whoever  should  introduce  them 
would  commit  an  offence.  Therefore  it  is  demonstrated  that  religious  liberty  in 
the  Philippines  is  not  only  not  advisable  but  adverse  to  the  public  peace. 

"  In  conclusion,  if  it  be  said  that  as  regards  the  state  of  religion  in  the  Philip- 
pines there  are  points  of  public  interest  which  demand  some  reform,  we  shall 
not  deny  it ;  but  the  Church  has  the  desire  and  the  means  to  remedy  these  sup- 
posed or  recognized  evils.  If  by  chance,  she  does  not  remedy  them,  because 
she  is  ignorant  of  them,  then  any  one  interested  may  make  them  known,  and  the 
Government  of  the  country  sooner  than  anybody  else.  On  the  other  hand,  this 
subject  has  nothing  to  do  with  religious  liberty."  > 

On  his  visit  to  the  Philippines  in  1901,  the  Rev.  Arthur  J.  Brown, 
D.  D.,  met  the  same  spirit  and  its  unhesitating  avowal.  He  reports 
an  interview  he  had  with  a  prominent  Bishop  in  Manila : 

"  After  a  few  introductory  generalities  had  led  up  to  the  issue,  the  Bishop  said : 
4  If  you  come  to  preach  to  Americans,  I  welcome  you  and  wish  you  well.  But 
the  Indians  are  all  Roman  Catholics,  and  if  you  preach  among  them  and  try  to 
wean  them  from  the  Church,  we  must  combat  you.' 

"  I  replied  that  we  could  only  reach  those  who  were  willing  to  be  reached, 
that  thus  far  the  Indians  had  been  coming  to  us,  and  that  as  some  were  evidently 
leaving  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  it  was  simply  better  that  they  should  become 
Protestants  than  that  they  should  have  no  religion  at  all. 

"  He  replied :  •  This  is  a  Catholic  country.  The  Catholics  formerly  had 
everything  in  the  Philippines,  but  now  (and  his  tone  and  manner  became  more 
bitter)  the  Church  has  lost  all.' 

«'  I  answered  :  '  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  overwhelmingly  Protes- 
tant in  membership  and  sympathy,  but  they,  nevertheless,  give  entire  freedom  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Why  should  not  Protestants  be  as  free  to  preach  in 
the  Philippines  as  the  Roman  Catholics  are  to  preach  in  America  ? ' 

"  He  brusquely  said:  « Conditions  are  very  different  here.' 

"  I  said  that  we  did  not  desire  to  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  any  who  pre- 
ferred the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  that  one  of  our  cardinal  principles  was  the  right 
of  every  man  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience, 
and  that  our  purpose  was  not  merely  to  be  in  opposition,  but  to  present  the  posi- 
tive teachings  of  Christ. 

"  He  sharply  replied  :  '  Don't  say  that.'  He  then  began  to  harangue  on  the 
divisions  of  Protestantism,  closing  by  asking :  '  How  many  classes  of  Protestants 
are  there  ? ' 

"  I  replied :  "  Less  in  the  Philippines  than  there  are  Orders  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  for  while  you  have  Dominicans,  Franciscans,   Augustinians, 

1  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  zgoo,  Vol.,  IV,  pp.  1  lo-i  12. 


514  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Recolletos,  Jesuits,  Capuchins  and  Benedictines,  seven  in  all,  besides  secular 
priests  and  sisters,  Protestants  have  six — Baptists,  Presbyterians,  Methodists, 
United  Brethren,  Episcopalians  and  Christians.' 

"  He  answered :  '  You  are  mistaken.  Catholics  all  teach  the  same  truths,  so 
that  there  is  no  difference  between  an  Augustinian  convert  and  a  Dominican  con- 
vert.    All  are  united  under  the  same  head.     You  have  no  head.' 

"  I  did  not  deem  it  courteous  to  state  that  the  mutual  enmities  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Orders  were  notoriously  more  bitter  than  the  differences  which  we  were 
now  discussing  in  a  fraternal  spirit  with  our  Baptist  brethren.  But  I  did  say 
that  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  the  Protestant  bodies  in  the  Philippines  were  work- 
ing together  as  harmoniously  as  the  Roman  Catholic  Orders  were,  that  while  it 
was  true  that  we  had  no  earthly  head,  it  was  because  we  held  that  Christ  alone 
should  be  head,  that  our  ideal  was  a  spiritual  unity  in  Him,  rather  than  an  ex- 
ternal unity  in  man,  and  that  our  divergencies  were  rather  those  of  method  and 
emphasis  than  of  fundamental  truth. 

"  He  queried :  '  While  only  Presbyterians  are  here  now,  how  do  I  know  how 
many  more  classes  of  Protestants  will  come  and  teach  different  things.  With  us 
the  Dominicans  take  one  province  and  the  Augustinians  another,  except  in  Manila.' 

"  I  then  explained  the  Evangelical  Union  which  had  recently  been  formed  in 
Manila  and  which  was  dividing  the  islands  territorially  between  the  Protestant 
Churches,  just  as  the  Orders  had  agreed  upon  a  like  division  for  themselves. 

"  The  conversation  then  turned  to  the  fortitude  of  the  Christians  in  China,  and 
he  listened  with  interest  and  a  softened  expression  as  I  described  the  heroic  de- 
fence of  Bishop  Favier  in  Peking,  and  the  bullet  and  shell  holes  I  had  seen  in 
the  walls  and  roof  of  the  great  Cathedral. 

"  In  closing  the  interview,  which  was  of  considerable  length,  I  said  that  I  had 
not  called  to  argue ;  that  I,  of  course,  recognized  the  differences  between  Roman 
Catholics  and  Protestants,  that  in  view  of  the  relation  into  which  Americans  had 
now  come  with  the  Philippines,  we  believed  that  it  was  our  duty  to  come  here  and 
to  preach  the  truth  as  we  understood  it,  but  that  we  wished  to  do  so  in  the  spirit 
of  Christian  courtesy  and  fairness.  But  he  again  said  :  '  Do  not  say  that.'  He 
plainly  knew  little  of  America  and  of  American  Protestantism,  but  he  felt  in  a 
half-blind,  instinctive,  almost  ferocious  way,  that  American  Protestantism  was  a 
kind  of  Satanic  manifestation,  which  threatened  the  very  existence  of  society 
and  of  the  true  Church,  and  that  its  missionaries  were  to  be  resisted  as  emissaries 
of  moral  anarchy  and  ruin.  Of  course,  the  interview  accomplished  nothing 
except  to  give  me  an  opportunity  to  personally  note  the  type  of  character  and 
ability  which  leads  the  Roman  Church  in  the  Philippines  and  the  position  from 
which  it  will  fight  Protestantism.  Everything  was  about  what  I  had  been  led  to 
expect.  The  really  significant  admission  being :  '  The  Catholics  formerly  had 
everything  in  the  Philippines,  but  now,  the  Church  has  lost  all.'  "  ' 

1  Brown,  Report  of  a  Visitation  of  the  Philippine  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  2d  edit.,  pp.  96f.  See  also  Brown,  The  New  Era  in  the  Philippines, 
Chs.  XII,  XIII,  XIV. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  5 15 

The  attitude  which  the  American  Government  has  taken  is  clearly 
set  forth  in  the  reports  of  the  Taft  Commission  in  its  discussion  of  the 
problem  of  the  friars,  which  it  declares  to  be  the  real  political 
problem  of  the  islands  : 

"  Those  who  are  charged  with  the  duty  of  pacifying  these  islands  may,  therefore, 
properly  have  the  liveliest  concern  in  a  matter  which,  though  on  its  surface  only 
ecclesiastical,  is,  in  the  most  important  phase  of  it,  political  and  fraught  with  the 
most  critical  consequences  to  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the  country  in  which 
it  is  their  duty  to  set  up  civil  Government.  We  are  convinced  that  a  return  of 
the  friars  to  their  parishes  will  lead  to  lawless  violence  and  murder,  and  that  the 
people  will  charge  the  course  taken  to  the  American  Government,  thus  turning 
against  it  the  resentment  felt  towards  the  friars.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
Filipinos  who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  American  cause  in  these  islands  are  as 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  friars  as  the  most  irreconcilable  insurgents,  and  they  look 
with  the  greatest  anxiety  to  the  course  to  be  taken  in  the  matter.  It  is  suggested 
that  the  friars,  if  they  returned,  would  uphold  American  sovereignty  and  be 
efficient  instruments  in  securing  peace  and  good  order,  whereas,  the  native 
priests  who  now  fill  the  parishes  are  many  of  them  active  insurgent  agents,  or  in 
strong  sympathy  with  the  cause.  It  is  probably  true  that  a  considerable  number 
of  the  Filipino  priests  are  hostile  to  American  sovereignty,  largely  because  they 
fear  the  Catholic  Church  will  deem  it  necessary  on  the  restoration  of  complete 
peace  to  bring  back  the  friars  or  to  elevate  the  moral  tone  of  the  priesthood  by  in- 
troducing priests  from  America  or  elsewhere.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  enmity 
among  the  people  against  the  American  Government  caused  by  the  return  of  the 
friars  would  far  outweigh  the  advantage  of  efforts  to  secure  and  preserve  the  al- 
legiance of  the  people  to  American  sovereignty  which  might  be  made  by  priests 
who  are  still  subjects  of  a  monarchy  with  which  the  American  Government  has 
been  lately  at  war,  and  who  have  not  the  slightest  sympathy  with  the  political 
principles  of  civil  liberty  which  the  American  Government  represents. 

"  We  have  set  forth  the  facts  upon  this  important  issue,  because  we  do  not 
think  they  ought  to  be,  or  can  be,  ignored.  We  earnestly  hope  that  those  who 
control  the  policy  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  these  islands  with  the  same  sagac- 
ity and  provision  which  characterizes  all  its  important  policies,  will  see  that  it 
would  be  most  unfortunate  for  the  Philippine  islands,  for  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
for  the  American  Government  to  attempt  to  send  back  the  friars,  and  that  some 
other  solution  of  the  difficulties  should  be  found.  The  question  for  the  prelate 
and  statesman,  is  not  whether  the  bitter  feeling  towards  the  friars  is  justified  or 
not,  but  whether  it  exists.  It  does  not  seem  to  us,  therefore,  to  aid  in  reaching 
a  conclusion  to  point  out  that  all  the  civilization  found  in  the  Philippines  is  due 
to  the  friars.  Be  it  so.  Ought  they  on  this  account  to  return  to  their  parishes  in 
the  face  of  a  deep,  popular  feeling  against  them  ?  A  popular  bias  or  prejudice, 
deep  seated  in  ignorant  people,  is  not  to  be  disregarded  because  it  cannot  stand 
the  test  of  reason  or  evidence.     It  must  be  reckoned  with.     It  would,  of  course, 


516  Missions  and  Modern  History 

be  of  much  assistance  to  the  American  cause  if  the  Catholic  Church  were  to 
send  among  the  people  American  priests  with  the  love  of  their  country  that  they 
have  always  shown,  and  with  their  clear  understanding  of  civil  liberty  and  con- 
servative popular  Government ;  but  it  is  said  that  such  priests  are  not  available  for 
the  work.  This  is  a  question  of  purely  Church  policy  with  which  we  have  noth- 
ing to  do.  It  is  enough  that  the  political  question  will  be  eliminated  if  the 
friars  are  not  sent  back. 

"  The  friars  have  large  property  interests  in  these  islands  which  the  United 
States  Government  is  bound  by  treaty  obligations  and  by  the  law  of  its  being  to 
protect.  It  is  natural  and  proper  that  the  friars  should  feel  a  desire  to  remain 
where  so  much  of  their  treasure  is.  Nearly  all  the  immense  agricultural  hold- 
ings have  been  transferred  by  the  three  orders — by  the  Dominicans  to  a  gentleman 
named  Andrews,  by  the  Recolletos  to  an  English  corporation,  and  by  the 
Augustinians  to  another  corporation ;  but  these  transfers  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  out  and  out  sales,  but  only  a  means  for  managing  the  estates  without  direct 
intervention  of  the  frairs,  or  for  selling  the  same  when  a  proper  price  can  be 
secured.  The  friars  seem  to  remain  the  real  owners.  It  would  avoid  some  very 
troublesome  agrarian  disturbances  between  the  friars  and  their  quondam  tenants 
if  the  insular  Government  could  buy  these  large  haciendos  of  the  friars  and  sell 
them  out  in  small  holdings  to  the  present  tenants,  who,  forgiven  for  the  rent  due 
during  the  two  years  of  war,  would  recognize  the  title  of  the  Government  with- 
out demur,  and  gladly  accept  an  opportunity,  by  payment  of  the  price  in  small 
installments,  to  become  absolute  owners  of  what  they  and  their  ancestors  have  so 
long  cultivated.  With  the  many  other  calls  upon  the  insular  treasury,  a  large 
financial  operation  like  this  would  probably  not  be  conducted  to  a  successful 
issue  without  the  aid  of  the  United  States  Government,  either  by  a  direct  loan  or 
by  a  guaranty  of  bonds  to  be  issued  for  the  purpose.  The  bonds  or  loan  could 
be  met  gradually  from  the  revenue  of  the  islands,  while  the  proceeds  of  the  land, 
which  would  sell  readily,  could  be  used  to  constitute  a  school  fund.  This  object, 
if  declared,  would  make  the  plan  most  popular,  because  the  desire  for  education 
by  the  Filipinos  of  all  tribes  is  very  strong  and  gives  encouraging  promise  of  the 
luture  mental  development  of  a  now  uneducated  and  ignorant  people. 

"  The  provincials  of  the  orders  were  understood  in  their  evidence  to  intimate 
a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  orders  to  sell  their  agricultural  holdings  if  a  sat- 
isfactory price  should  be  paid.  What  such  a  price  would  be  we  are  unable, 
without  further  investigation,  to  state.  If  an  agreement  could  not  be  reached,  it 
is  probable,  though  upon  this  we  wish  to  express  no  definite  opinion,  that  there 
would  be  ground  in  the  circumstances  for  a  resort  to  condemnation  proceedings. 

"  As  the  Church  is  and  ought  to  continue  a  prominent  factor  in  the  life,  peace, 
and  contentment  and  progress  of  the  Philippine  people,  it  would  seem  the  wisest 
course,  wherever  it  is  possible,  to  do  so  without  infringing  upon  the  principle  that 
Church  and  State  must  be  kept  separate,  to  frame  civil  laws  which  shall  accord 
with  views  conscientiously  entertained  by  Catholics — priests  and  laymen — and 
which  shall  not  deal  unfairly  with  a  people  of  a  different  faith.      It  would  seem 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  517 

clear  that  any  Government  organized  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States 
cannot  devote  public  money  to  the  teaching  of  any  particular  religion.  It  has 
been  suggested,  however,  that  in  any  system  of  public  education  organized  in 
these  islands,  it  would  be  proper  to  afford  to  every  religious  denomination  the 
right  to  send  religious  instructors  to  the  public  schools  to  instruct  the  children  of 
parents  who  desire  it  in  religion  several  times  a  week,  at  times  when  such  in- 
struction shall  not  interfere  with  the  regular  curriculum.  That  is  what  is  under- 
stood to  be  the  Faribault  plan.  It  is  not  certain  that  this  would  meet  completely 
the  views  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  but  it  is  likely  that  it  would  avoid  that  active 
hostility  to  a  public  school  system  which  might  be  a  formidable  obstacle  in  spread- 
ing education  among  these  Catholic  people.  The  Commission  has  reached  no 
definite  conclusion  upon  the  matter,  but  only  states  the  question  as  one  calling 
for  solution  in  the  not  far  distant  future."  ' 

This  is  surely  only  a  wise  and  just  political  attitude.  If  fully  car- 
ried out,  Protestants  should  not  complain.  The  difficulty  is  to  pre- 
serve exact  justice  in  a  matter  where  the  administration  that  would 
walk  justly  must  maintain  so  delicate  a  balance.  In  the  early  days 
of  American  sovereignty  no  such  impression  of  impartiality  was  pro- 
duced. Mr.  Dean  relates  in  The  Cross  of  Christ  in  Bolo-Land 
what  the  disposition  of  the  military  Government  was  believed  by  the 
people  to  be : 

"  There  is  no  harm  now  in  saying  that  the  American  military  Government  was, 
at  the  time  of  Mr.  Rodger's  arrival,  none  too  cordial  towards  the  idea  of  Protes- 
tant missions.  The  general  in  command  assumed  that  to  start  a  religious  contro- 
versy in  addition  to  the  troubles  already  on  hand  would  array  the  natives  even 
more  bitterly  against  American  supremacy.  Believing  that  the  Catholic  Church 
was  the  strength  of  the  insurrection  and  its  chief  support  derived  from  the  en- 
couragement of  the  native  padres,  it  was  the  policy  of  the  military  Government 
for  a  period  at  least,  to  reassure  and  conciliate  the  Church  in  all  honourable  ways. 
It  was  this  purpose  which  led  General  Otis  to  send  his  own  launch  out  into  the 
bay  to  meet  the  transport  upon  which  Archbishop  Chappelle,  the  accredited  agent 
of  the  Pope,  arrived.  This  act  of  courtesy  was  widely  discussed  among  the  na- 
tives, and  was  misunderstood  by  them  to  mean  that  the  American  Government 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  hated  friars,  whom  they  were  clamouring  to  be  rid  of. 
This  erroneous  impression  was  strengthened  by  the  appearance  of  General  Otis 
at  the  reception  given  the  Archbishop  by  the  Spanish  and  Filipino  clergy.  As 
he  had  refused  all  social  functions  for  some  weeks,  his  presence  was  given  the 
more  significance.     These  two  incidents  of  the  launch  and  the  reception  would 

1  Report  of  the  Taft  Commission,  Senate  Document  112,  Fifty-sixth  Congress, 
second  Session,  pp.  31-33. 


518  Missions  and  Modern  History 

not  be  worth  the  chronicling  were  it  not  for  the  importance  given  them  by  the 
native  mind.  Even  some  Americans  thought  themselves  compelled  to  seek  the 
reason  for  the  over-friendly  attitude  maintained  by  the  military  governor  towards 
the  Catholic  Church  in  his  own  conversion  of  Rome.  There  appears  to  be  no 
foundation  for  such  an  opinion  other  than  the  appearance  of  the  name  of  Col.  E. 
S.  Otis  in  the  list  of «  Prominent  Converts  to  Catholicism,'  in  the  appendix  of  the 
fifth  edition  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  Countries  Compared.  Certain  it  is  that 
for  political  or  other  reasons,  Mr.  Rodgers  was  little  more  than  tolerated  in  Ma- 
nila when  he  first  arrived.  No  governor-general's  launch  took  him  in  honour 
from  the  ship  to  shore,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  an  indiscretion  on  his  part  would 
have  resulted  in  his  deportation  and  a  serious  postponement  of  missionary  activ- 
ity. By  his  unfailing  tact,  he  was  able  to  open  services  and  awaken  a  decided 
interest  among  the  natives  without  giving  the  authorities  an  excuse  ior  interfer- 
ence." ' 

It  was  too  much  to  expect  that  General  Otis  should  treat  an  un- 
known Protestant  missionary  as  he  treated  a  well-known  Catholic 
Archbishop.  But  it  was  not  too  much  to  expect  that  Protestantism 
should  not  be  snubbed  and  its  entrance  as  a  missionary  force  dis- 
countenanced, as  was  improperly  done.  And  even  since  civil  Gov- 
ernment has  been  established,  the  general  attitude  of  the  Commission, 
if  it  has  not  encouraged  Catholicism,  as  assuredly  it  has  not  inten- 
tionally done  by  any  political  partiality,  has  yet  fostered  the  notion 
that  the  Protestant  Churches  are  inconsequential  and  religion  not  an 
essential  part  of  American  life.  In  a  sermon  preached  at  Manila  on 
December  21,  1902,  by  the  Rev.  George  F.  Pentecost,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
the  preacher  referred  boldly  to  this  fact : 

"  In  a  recent  Thanksgiving  sermon  preached  from  this  platform,  I  ventured  to 
call  attention  to  the  regrettable  fact  that  no  American  member  of  the  Civil  Com- 
mission for  the  Government  of  these  Islands  participated  in  the  public  worship  of 
God  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  that  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  Day  was  habitually 
invaded  and  desecrated  by  the  needless  transaction  of  public  business ;  and  that 
this  public  and  official  example  was  being  followed  by  the  more  prominent  Amer- 
icans in  Manila ;  and  that  it  was  the  common  belief  that  there  was  some  implicit 
policy  on  the  part  of  the  Government  to  discourage  the  worship  of  God  in  Prot- 
estant Christian  Churches  in  this  city  and  throughout  these  Islands.  I  am  more  than 
happy  to  say  that  the  Governor  assures  me  that  there  is  no  such  policy  either  ex- 
plicit or  implicit  on  the  part  of  the  Insular  Government,  but  only  that  the  unani- 
mous non-churchgoing  habit  of  high  Government  officials  is  a  pure  coincidence, 
arising  from  the  fact  that  the  American  members  of  the  Commission  are  all  non- 

1  The  Cross  of  Christ  in  Bolo-Land,  pp.  49,  50. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  519 

churchgoing  men.  We,  Protestants,  do  not  in  any  sense  assume  to  compel  our 
public  men  to  be  Christians,  but  we  do  feel  that  it  is  within  our  province  to  criti- 
cise such  a  unanimous  non-religious  habit  on  the  part  of  officials.  If  this  is 
their  attitude  towards  religion  and  the  public  recognition  of  God  it  is  not  a  mat- 
ter of  wonder  that  almost  the  entire  American  community  in  Manila  follow  their 
example  and  that,  while  we  find  the  public  race-courses  and  the  fields  of  sport 
crowded,  the  social  clubs  of  the  city  in  lull  blast,  public  business  in  full  swing  on 
the  Sabbath-day,  the  houses  of  worship  are  practically  empty  and  the  worship  of 
God  under  whose  blessing  we  have  become  so  great  a  people  almost  totally 
abandoned.  Such  habits,  especially,  in  official  circles  are  utterly  inconsistent 
with  the  declaration  of  our  honoured  Governor  quoted  in  another  place,  namely, 
that  '  the  founders  of  our  Government  were  profoundly  convinced  that  religion 
must  be  upheld  for  the  benefit  of  the  state  and  that  it  was  the  basis  for  the  moral- 
ity of  the  citizen.'  If  this  is  a  true  statement  of  the  '  profound  conviction  of  the 
founders  of  the  Government,'  I  hope  I  will  not  be  deemed  impertinent  if  I  ask  our 
present  rulers  if  they  are  honestly  seeking  to  give  this  profound  conviction,  forceful 
and  objective  expression.  And  I  venture,  inclosing  the  discussion  of  this  point,  to 
say  that  the  unanimous  habit  of  ignoring  the  public  worship  of  God  on  the  part  of 
our  civil  rulers  and  high  officials  is  not  according  to  best  American  ideals ;  it  is  poor 
religion  ;  it  is  bad  morality ;  and  worse  politics.  Such  an  attitude  towards  relig- 
ion in  our  national  home  Government  would  not  be  condoned  by  the  American 
people  during  a  second  term  ;  and  the  time  is  not  distant  when  it  will  not  be  con- 
doned here.  Protestants  do  not  ask  either  for  Government  patronage  or  support, 
but  they  do  demand  in  the  name  of  religion  that  the  best  traditions  of  the  country 
be  not  persistently  violated  by  the  highest  officials  of  the  land."1 

This  raises,  however,  a  new  question  about  which  something  needs 
to  be  said.  As  to  religious  liberty  it  remains  only  to  be  added  that 
there  is  no  reason  to  fear  that,  under  American  rule  in  the  Philippines, 
there  will  not  be  ultimately,  in  spite  of  the  position  and  influence  of 
the  Catholic  Church  adverse  to  toleration,  the  same  freedom  of  relig- 
ion and  of  religious  propagandism  that  there  is  in  the  United  States. 
The  position  which  the  Commission  will  maintain  was  set  forth  in 
Governor  Taft's  letter  to  Pope  Leo  XIII : 

"  I  do  not  need  to  assure  your  holiness  that  the  attitude  of  the  United  States 
and  the  Philippine  Government  is  not  one  of  unfriendliness  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church.  The  policy  of  separating  Church  from  State,  as  required  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  does  not  indicate  hostility  to  religion  or  the 
maintenance  of  any  church.  On  the  contrary,  the  founders  of  our  Government 
were  profoundly  convinced  that  religion  must  be  upheld  foi   the  benefit  of  the 

1  Dr.  Pentecost's  Sermon,  Protestantism  in  the  Philippines  ;  its  Relation  to  the 
State,  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  to  the  People,  Manila,  1 903,  pp.  lji. 


520  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

State,  and  that  it  was  the  basis  for  the  morality  of  the  citizen ;  and  in  practice  it 
will  be  found  that  in  the  United  States  the  rights  of  all  churches,  both  as  to  prop- 
erty, administration  and  practice  of  religion,  are  preserved  even  with  more  scru- 
pulous care  than  in  some  countries  where  Church  and  State  are  said  to  be  united. 
I  venture  to  point  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  America  as 
indicating  that  it  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  extension  of  the  same  rule  over  the 
Philippine  Islands.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  treats  all  churches 
and  creeds  alike.  It  protects  them  all,  but  favours  no  one  against  the  other.  It 
is  not  engaged  in  proselyting  from  one  church  or  creed  to  another,  and  any  office 
using  his  office  directly  or  indirectly  for  such  a  purpose,  ought  to  forfeit  his 
office."  » 

This  is  good  American  doctrine,  but  two  things  need  to  be  said  to 
bring  out  all  the  truth  of  it.  (i)  In  the  first  place,  Governor  Taft 
did  not  say  that  officials  should  not  exert  a  religious  influence.  He 
emphatically  asserted  that  "the  founders  of  our.  Government  were 
profoundly  convinced  that  religion  must  be  upheld  for  the  benefit  of 
the  State."  What  the  religion  is  that  underlies  our  institutions,  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  has  declared.  It  is  Christianity.  No 
official  misuses  his  office  who  acts  in  it  as  a  Christian  and  who  does 
so  avowedly.  The  American  official  who  acts  otherwise,  who  is  im- 
moral or  dissolute  in  his  life,  who  is  atheistic  or  irreligious,  acts  trea- 
sonably, not  in  a  political  sense,  perhaps,  but  with  a  faithlessness  to 
the  spirit  of  the  land  and  to  its  traditions  and  institutions.  2  Let  as 
much  be  said  against  sectarianism  as  men  wish  to  say.  Both  Cath- 
olics and  Protestants  believe  in  God  and  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  in 
the  Bible  and  the  life  which  it  describes,  and  no  palaver  about  the 
necessity  of  being  impartial  and,  in  the  matter  of  sectarianism,  neu- 
tral, can  absolve  American  representatives  in  the  Philippines  from 

1  Dr.  Pentecost's  Sermon,  Protestantism  in  the  Philippines  ;  its  Relation  to  the 
State,  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  to  the  People,  Manila,  1903,  preface. 

8  "  Like  all  visitors  to  the  islands,  he  finds  the  Filipinos  to  be  devoted  to  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  with  '  a  very  vague  idea  of  how  the  American  stands  with  re- 
gard to  religion,'  of  which  he  gives  this  incident  as  an  illustration  : 

"  '  It  was  the  custom  of  the  officers  of  the  garrison  of  a  certain  town  to  sit  at  the 
windows  of  their  quarters  on  Sunday  mornings  and  watch  the  natives  on  their 
way  to  church,  always  an  interesting  sight,  as  everybody,  from  the  Presidente  to 
the  poorest  trabajero,  attended  with  their  wives,  dressed  for  the  occasion. 

"  '  One  Sunday  it  was  noticed  that  the  Vice-Presidente,  who  had  taken  the 
oath  of  allegiance  the  day  before,  escorted  his  family  as  far  as  the  church  door 
and  then  returned  home.  When  questioned  next  day  by  one  of  the  officers  as  to 
the  reason  for  his  not  attending  mass,  he  replied  :  "  I  am  an  American  now,  and 
the  Americans  do  not  have  to  go  to  church  "  '  "  (  The  Sun,  August  7,  1902, 
editorial,  "  A  Soldier  on  the  Friars,"  quoting  from  article  in  United  Service 
Review,  by  Roland  Fortescue,  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry  of  our  Army). 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  521 

their  duty  of  godly  living  and  Christian  influence.  Dr.  Pentecost  set 
this  before  the  people  of  Manila  in  the  Thanksgiving  sermon  to  which 
he  refers  and  which  Governor  Taft  came  to  hear  : 

"  The  American  citizen  in  such  a  land  as  this  under  the  conditions  which 
brought  him  here,  who  ceases  to  represent  in  himself  the  high  ideals  of  our 
American  traditions,  not  only  can  do  no  good  to  the  people  among  whom  he 
dwells,  but  becomes  their  worst  enemy.  Even  the  man  who  maintains  an  out- 
wardly decent  life  but  who  has  ceased  to  cherish  and  reverence  the  principles 
which  underlie  the  moral  greatness  of  our  national  life  can  do  no  good  to  the 
people.  The  American  who  says,  as  one  said  the  other  day :  '  I  did  not  come  to 
Manila  to  help  elevate  the  Filipino,  but  to  make  all  the  money  I  can  out  of  him 
and  his  country  while  the  opportunity  lasts.  I  don't  take  any  stock  in  America's 
philanthropic  mission,'  is  an  apostate  American  citizen  and  potentially  a  traitor 
to  his  country.  I  grieve  to  say  that  the  signs  of  such  apostasy  from  high  Ameri- 
can ideals  are  too  patent  in  the  American  community  in  Manila,  among  those  who 
have  not  so  bluntly  expressed  themselves  as  did  the  American  above  referred  to. 
The  signs  of  this  apostasy  and  moral  deterioration  are  seen  in  the  abandonment  of 
the  churchgoing  habit.  It  is  not  the  practice  of  all  or  even  nearly  all  Americans 
in  the  home-land  regularly  to  go  to  the  house  of  God  on  the  Sabbath  day ;  never- 
theless the  public  worship  of  God,  or  churchgoing  is  a  part  and  a  large  factor 
and  I  may  say  a  saving  factor  in  American  life.  Now  there  are  less  than,  or  at 
least  not  more  than  three  hundred  regular  attendants  upon  the  worship  of  God 
in  the  American  churches  in  the  city.  Soon  after  I  came  here,  I  asked  a  lady 
as  to  the  churchgoing  habits  of  the  Americans  in  Manila.  Her  reply  was  as 
witty  as  it  was  sad  and  significant :  '  Dr.  Pentecost,  churchgoing  in  Manila  is  a 
thing  that  is  not  done  by  good  society.'  I  am  told  by  the  American  ministers  in 
this  city  that  it  is  an  unheard  of  thing  for  the  more  prominent  people  of  Manila 
to  be  seen  in  the  American  churches.  If  this  be  the  settled  habit  of  those  in 
high  places,  it  is  not  surprising  that  their  lead  is  eagerly  followed  by  those  in 
subordinate  positions  in  so-called  society.  In  these  circumstances,  is  it  any  won- 
der that  the  friars  and  the  priests  of  the  old  Spanish  Church  tell  their  people  that 
the  Americans  are  all  infidels  ?  If  the  Americans  in  these  islands  think  for  a 
moment  that  such  a  policy  will  make  for  the  success  of  America  in  the  Philip- 
pines or  for  the  good  of  the  people,  I  warn  them  that  they  are  departing  from 
the  best  American  precedents  and  to  use  a  phrase  with  which  some  of  them  are  fa- 
miliar, '  riding  for  a  fall '  and  a  very  bad  fall.  .  .  .  This  apostasy  of  life  out 
here  is  seen  in  the  prevalence  of  three  common  vices  openly  indulged  in,  and 
in  some  cases  apologized  for.  I  refer  to  the  trinity  of  vices  which  do  more  to 
break  down  character  and  destroy  and  debase  human  nature  than  any  other 
known  vices  of  our  lower  nature,  namely,  drunkenness,  gambling  and  licentious- 
ness. To  these  three  vices,  it  is  commonly  reported,  a  large  number  of  our 
younger  men  and  not  a  few  of  the  older  ones  are  addicted.  I  do  not  say  that 
these  vices  are  not  common  at  home,  but  I  do  say  that  they  are  only  indulged  in 


522  Missions  and  Modern  History 

by  those  who  have  abandoned  all  high  ideals  of  life.  I  am  proud  to  say  of  my 
country,  that  at  home,  at  least,  the  drunkard,  the  gambler  and  the  libertine  are 
tabooed  of  all  decent  people.  I  have  seen  drunken  men  at  home,  and  have  been 
sorry  and  ashamed;  when  I  have  seen  an  American  soldier  drunk  in  the  streets 
of  Manila  or  reeling  out  of  one  of  the  numerous  saloons  in  the  town,  in  full  sight 
of  and  before  the  amazed  eyes  of  the  natives,  I  have  felt  ashamed  and  humiliated  ; 
but  when  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes,  officers  of  the  American  army  in  their 
beautiful  white  uniforms  and  in  the  presence  of  the  most  distinguished  people  of 
the  land,  American  and  native,  maudlin  and  swaggering  drunk — then  as  an 
American  citizen,  I  have  felt  myself  to  have  been  humiliated  and  disgraced  and 
my  country  betrayed  and  dishonoured.  I  do  not  say  that  this  condition  of  things 
is  characteristic  of  the  whole  American  community,  but  that  it  goes  on  tolerated 
and  unrebuked  by  that  '  best  society '  which  deems  it  infradig.  to  be  found  in  the 
House  of  God  on  the  Lord's  Day. 

"  In  a  foreign  land  where  war  has  come  with  all  its  train  of  vice  and  where 
all  the  incentives  to  the  worst  passions  of  human  nature  are  awakened,  we  do 
not  expect  to  see  the  best  social,  civic  and  religious  virtues  in  the  most  active 
exercise,  but  it  is  in  just  such  conditions  and  circumstances  that  we  do  expect 
to  see  every  best  and  truest  American  exercising  and  throwing  all  his  influence 
upon  the  side  of  religion,  morality  and  high  Americanism.     .     .     ."' 

(2)  And  just  as  all  American  representatives  ought  to  be  and  to 
act  in  office  as  Christians  without  concealment,  so  in  all  incidental 
and  unofficial  ways,  they  should  be  free  and  under  duty  to  do  all 
they  can  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  people  and  their  uplifting. 
The  lesson  that  the  Indian  Mutiny  taught  England,  we  ought  to 
learn  without  any  bitter  experience  to  teach  it  to  us.  British  repre- 
sentatives in  India  are  free  to  exert  their  influence  as  they  desire  in 
all  unofficial  ways  to  bring  the  people  of  India  to  Christ.  American 
representatives  in  the  Philippines  should  be  equally  free  and  no 
pressure  of  official  disapproval  or  of  social  ostracism  should  be  ex- 
erted to  make  them  unfaithful  in  a  duty  they  owe  to  God  and  not  to 
God  only,  but  to  the  largest  political  interests  of  America  and  of  the 
Philippine  people.2 

1  Reported  in  the  Manila  Cablenews,  December  5,  1902. 

*"l.  The  governor  and  his  associates  on  the  commission  make  every  effort 
to  be  impartial  and  just  in  all  their  dealings  with  religious  bodies.  The  com- 
mission indicates  a  desire  to  foster  any  work  that  has  the  welfare  of  the  people 
in  view.  I  have  no  doubt  at  all  that  the  commission  has  at  times  been  over- 
cautious in  handling  questions  in  which  Roman  Catholic  matters  were  involved. 
But,  on  the  whole,  it  has  threaded  its  way  along  a  difficult  and  intricate  path 
with  fairness  and  commendable  wisdom. 

"  2.     As  to  the  attitude  of  Government  officials.     The  fact — and  a  deplorable 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  523 

The  educational  problem  in  the  Philippines  is  an  indication  of  the 
immense  blessings  which  American  rule  is  bringing,  in  comparison 
with  Spanish  misrule  and  its  toleration  of  ignorance.  It  is  an  illus- 
tration also  of  the  difficulty  of  the  religious  problem.  What  the  edu- 
cational condition  was  under  Spain  and  the  Catholic  Church  has 
already  been  indicated.  In  1901,  a  thousand  American  school- 
teachers were  brought  to  the  islands  and  sent  to  500  of  the  900 
towns  of  the  archipelago.  Twenty-five  hundred  Philippine  teachers 
were  employed.  Normal  and  manual  training  schools  have  been 
organized  and  more  done  in  two  years  to  improve  and  perfect  the 
system  of  education  than  Spain  and  Rome  have  done  in  a  century. 
And  the  commission  has  contemplated  the  desirability  of  passing  "  a 
compulsory  education  law  when  the  school  system  shall  be  sufficiently 
enlarged  to  offer  to  all  children  of  school  age  due  opportunity  for 
education."1  These  schools  will  teach  what  the  American  people 
believe  to  be  true  as  to  history  and  politics  and  morality.  What 
will  be  their  attitude  towards  religion  ?     The  Philippine  commission 

fact  it  is — is  that  the  majority  of  Government  officials,  great  and  small,  are  not 
regular  churchgoers.  The  temptation  is  to  impute  evil  motives  ;  but  I  do  not 
think  we  have  any  more  right  to  guess  at  motives  as  to  why  men  stay  away  from 
church  than  we  would  have  to  guess  at  those  which  lead  them  to  church.  So 
contemptible  a  thing  would  it  be  for  a  man  to  suppress  his  convictions  and  his 
duty  to  God  for  the  sake  of  the  applause  of  the  majority,  or  to  gain  some  petty 
advantage  in  temporal  government,  that  any  one  guilty  of  it,  ipso  facto,  would  be 
disqualified  for  holding  the  reins  of  authority.  Many  of  our  warmest  supporters 
are  of  the  families  of  men  high  in  office,  and  this  has  always  been  so  from  the 
inception  of  our  work,  long  before  I  arrived  on  the  scene.  Naturally,  I  wish 
that  more  of  our  public  men,  men  of  mind,  character,  and  influence,  were  promi- 
nent also  in  church  matters;  but  I  would  deprecate  their  becoming  so  because  it 
was  politic,  respectful,  useful  for  temporal  ends,  almost  as  much  as  I  would  re- 
sent their  abstention  on  similar  grounds.  The  real  drawback  to  mission  work 
here  is  the  same  that  exists  elsewhere — the  indifference  and  wickedness  of  nom- 
inal Christians.  If  we  are  to  criticise  those  who  happen  to  hold  office  for  being 
non-religious  and  irreligious,  it  should  not  be  qua  officials,  but  as  belonging  to 
that  class,  which  is  large  in  Manila,  who  are  so  absorbed  in  the  affairs  of  this 
world  that  they  give  no  thought  to  the  deep  things  of  God. 

"  3.  I  am  conversant  with  the  case — the  freedom  of  a  school-teacher. 
Shortly  after  he  arrived  here  he  was  asked  to  speak  at  a  Sunday  evening  meet- 
ing of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  Months  later  the  Evangelical 
Union  invited  him  to  give  an  address  on  '  our  work.'  He  assented.  The  com- 
missioner of  education  led  him  to  understand  that  he  would  displease  the  au- 
thorities if  he  did  not  cancel  his  engagement.  Such  action  was  unjustifiable, 
but  it  was  the  action  of  an  individual  commissioner  and  not  of  the  commission  " 
(Bishop  Brent  in  The  Outlook,  quoted  in  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 
November,  1903,  p.  S61). 

1  Taft,  Article,  "  Civil  Government  in  the  Philippines,"  The  Outlook,  May  3^ 
1902. 


524  Missions  and  Modern  History 

answers  this  question:  "The  attitude  which  the  schools  should 
assume  towards  the  teaching  of  religion  was  fixed  by  the  adoption  of 
the  so-called  Faribault  plan.  This  was  set  forth  in  section  sixteen, 
in  the  following  language  : 

"  '  No  teacher  or  other  person  shall  teach  or  criticise  the  doctrines  of  any 
church,  religious  sect  or  denomination,  or  shall  attempt  to  influence  the  pupils 
for  or  against  any  church  or  religious  sect  in  any  public  school  established  under 
this  act.  If  any  teacher  shall  intentionally  violate  this  section,  he  or  she  shall, 
after  due  hearing,  be  dismissed  from  public  service. 

"'Provided,  however,  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  priest  or  minister  of  any 
church  established  in  the  pueblo  where  a  public  school  is  situated,  either  in  per- 
son or  by  a  designated  teacher  of  religion,  to  teach  religion  for  one-half  hour 
three  times  a  week  in  the  school  buildings  to  those  public  school  pupils  whose 
parents  or  guardians  desire  it  and  express  their  desire  therefore  in  writing  filed 
with  the  principal  teacher  of  the  school,  to  be  forwarded  to  the  division  superin- 
tendent, who  shall  fix  the  hour  and  rooms  for  such  teaching.  But  no  public 
school-teacher  shall  either  conduct  religious  services  or  teach  religion,  or  act  as 
a  designated  religious  teacher  in  the  school  building  under  the  foregoing  author- 
ity, and  no  pupil  shall  be  required  by  any  public  school-teacher  to  attend 
and  receive  religious  instructions  herein  permitted.  Should  the  opportunity 
thus  given  to  teach  religion  be  used  by  the  priest,  minister  or  religious  teacher 
for  the  purpose  of  arousing  disloyalty  to  the  United  States,  or  of  discouraging  the 
attendance  of  pupils  at  such  public  school,  of  creating  a  disturbance  of  public 
order,  or  of  interfering  with  the  discipline  of  the  school,  the  division  superin- 
tendent, subject  to  the  approval  of  the  general  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion, may,  after  due  investigation  and  hearing,  forbid  such  offending  priest,  min- 
ister or  religious  teacher  from  entering  the  public  school  building  thereafter.' "  » 

In  this  report  just  quoted,  the  commission  adds:  "Down  to  the 
present  time,  no  priest  or  other  religious  teacher  has  asked  for  the 
use  of  any  schoolhouse  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  religion  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  terms  of  this  section."  2  Probably,  this  is  as  wise 
an  arrangement  as  could  be  made.  The  American  schools  in  the 
Philippines  will  not  rise  much  above  the  level  of  the  American  schools 
at  home.  They  will  rise  just  so  far  above  as  the  motive  which  takes 
American  teachers  to  the  Philippines  may  be  a  more  religious  motive 
than  influences  teachers  at  home.  In  the  schools,  as  out  of  them, 
the  State  may  not  teach  what  is  sectarian,  but  I  believe  the  State 
should  teach  those  great  and  common  religious  truths  which  are  held 

•  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  December,  igoo,  to  October,  /go/,  Tart  I, 

P-  134- 

*Ibid.,\x  134. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  525 

by  all  bodies  of  Christians  and  which  underlie  our  civilization. 
The  State  should  do  this  at  home.  It  should  do  it  in  the  Philip- 
pines. We  are  there,  as  Lawrence  said  of  England  in  India,  not  by 
our  own  will,  or  the  will  of  the  people  of  the  Philippines,  but  by  the 
will  of  God.  It  is  easy  to  sneer  at  this  view,  but  the  will  of  God  has 
kept  us  there  in  spite  of  the  sneers  and  will  keep  us  there  until  our 
work  is  done.  But  God  has  laid  those  islands  upon  us  to  be  taught, 
to  be  educated,  to  be  purified,  and  we  are  chargeable  for  this  not  to 
them  or  to  atheists  at  home,  but  to  God.  And  God  should  be  in 
our  schools  there  and  never  be  shut  out  from  them.1 

The  presence  of  a  Christian  Government  in  the  Philippines  with 
its  immense  educational  and  philanthropic  agencies  relieves  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise  of  much  that  it  has  to  provide  in  other  lands. 
This  is  a  great  gain.  Whether  it  will  be  offset  by  too  much  loss  de- 
pends on  whether  the  influence  of  American  character  is  for  or 
against  pure  Christianity;  whether  the  infidels,  the  brewers,  the 
brothel-keepers,  the  gamblers,  the  irreligious,  the  secular  will  out- 
weigh the  devout,  the  upright,  the  industrious,  the  honest,  the  un- 
selfish. Time  will  show.  But  the  responsibility  for  what  time  will 
show,  is  with  us.  Our  relation  to  the  Philippines  is  a  distinctly 
missionary  relationship.  The  Church  should  pour  into  these  islands 
men  and  women  who  will  give  themselves  to  that  Protestant  effort 
without  which  there  is  no  hope  even  of  inner  reform  in  the  Catholic 
Church  ;  but  also  there  should  go  out  streams  of  young  men,  not 
missionaries,  who,  in  whatever  trade  or  profession,  will  regard  them- 
selves as  the  representatives  of  Christ  and  honour  Him  and  promote 
His  cause. 

Would  that  there  were  as  bright  hope  that  this  higher  duty  would 
be  discharged  as  there  is  that  our  political  and  economic  duty  will 
be  faithfully  done.  We  found  the  people  ignorant.  We  are  teach- 
ing them.  They  will  be  in  time  as  well  educated  as  any  people 
in  Asia,  an  English  speaking  people  at  the  gates  of  the  East. 
We  found  the  islands  undeveloped  and  without  roads.  The 
first  act  passed  by  the  Taft  Commission  appropriated  $1,000,000 
for  the  construction  and  improvement  of  roads.  The  islands  had 
been  farmed  for  the  benefit  of  Spain,  paying  at  one  time  to  the 
Spanish  Government  an  annual  tribute  amounting  to  about  five 
1  Brown,  The  New  Era  in  the  Philippines,  Ch.  XXIV. 


526  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

shillings  for  each  member  of  the  population.  In  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  Sir  John  Bowring  reported  that  about  half  of  the  whole 
amount  of  direct  taxation  went  to  Spain,  independently  of  what 
Spanish  subjects  received  who  were  employed  in  the  public  service.1 
The  United  States  will  spend  every  dollar  earned  by  the  islands  on 
the  islands  themselves  and  give  help  in  addition.  Under  Spain,  the 
Governor-General  and  the  Church  ruled  the  land.  Now,  local  Gov- 
ernment has  been  instituted  in  765  towns,  each  constituting  a  munic- 
ipality with  a  president,  vice-president  and  council  chosen  for  two 
years  by  qualified  electors.  The  number  of  school-teachers  has 
doubled  since  Spain's  day  and  the  quality  completely  changed, 
while  already  150,000  children  are  enrolled  in  the  schools  and  10,000 
adult  natives  are  learning  English.  The  annual  average  value  of  im- 
ports and  exports  for  the  years  1 883-1 890  was  $34,616,680.  In 
1900  it  was  $47,854,000,  and  in  1901,  $54,665,000,  and  in  1902, 
$62,014,070. 

This  is  the  good  side.  There  is  of  course  the  evil,— the  liquor, 
the  immorality,  the  extravagance,  the  harsh  arbitrariness  which 
curses  so  much  of  the  non- Christian  intercourse  of  the  West  with  the 
East.  But  much  of  this  is  temporary  and  the  rest  is  part  of  the 
weight  which  the  better  West  must  carry  until  it  can  slough  it  off 
and  trample  on  it.  So  long  as  we  have  it  at  home,  it  will  be  with 
us  abroad.  Its  presence  is  an  added  reason  for  the  emancipation 
from  all  foolish  restraint  of  those  Christian  men  whose  example  and 
influence  are  needed  to  offset  and  overcome  the  evil  effects  of  Western 
vileness.  It  is  intolerable  that  an  American  military  officer  should 
be  free  to  reel  in  drunkenness  through  the  streets  of  Manila  when 
not  on  duty  without  court-martial,  but  that  an  American  school- 
teacher should  not  be  free  to  teach  a  Sunday-school  class  out  of 
school  hours,  without  suffering  the  disapproval  of  his  superiors,  and 
in  some  cases  running  the  risk  of  dismission.  Surely  it  may  be 
hoped  that  all  American  citizens  and  the  total  American  influence 
in  the  Philippines  will  conform  to  the  ideals  set  forth  in  General 
Merritt's  orders  before  the  capture  of  Manila  : 

"  In  view  of  the  extraordinary  conditions  under  which  this  army  is  operating, 
the  commanding  general  desires  to  acquaint  the  officers  and  men  with  the  ex- 
pectations he  entertains  as  to  their  conduct. 

1  Bowling,  A  Visit  to  the  Philippine  Isles,  p.  324. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  527 

"  You  are  assembled  on  foreign  soil,  situated  within  the  western  confines  of  a 
vast  ocean,  separating  you  from  your  native  land.  You  have  not  come  as 
despoilers  or  oppressors,  but  simply  as  the  instrument  of  a  strong,  free  Govern- 
ment, whose  purposes  are  beneficent,  and  which  declared  itself  in  this  war 
champion  of  those  oppressed  by  Spanish  misrule. 

"  It  is  therefore  the  intention  of  this  order  to  appeal  directly  to  your  pride  in 
your  position  as  representatives  of  a  high  civilization,  in  the  hope  and  with  the 
firm  conviction  that  you  will  so  conduct  yourself  in  your  relation  with  the  in- 
habitants of  these  islands  as  to  convince  them  of  the  lofty  nature  of  the  mission 
you  have  come  to  execute."  • 

Two  minor  problems  of  significance  to  missions  confront  the  Gov- 
ernment in  the  Philippines,  and  they  are  closely  associated— the 
problem  of  the  Chinese  and  of  opium.  Some  hold  that  the  only 
way  to  develop  the  islands  is  to  import  Chinese  labour,  as  the  Philip- 
pine people  will  not  do  the  work  that  must  be  done.  The  Filipinos 
do  not  want  them  as  they  cannot  endure  Chinese  competition,  but 
practically  all  the  American  and  European  business  men  in  the  islands 
assert  that  there  is  no  hope  for  the  islands  without  them.  Some  out- 
side of  both  these  parties  argue  against  the  admission  of  the  Chinese 
on  the  ground  that  they  will  stifle  the  growth  of  the  Filipinos,  that 
the  islands  are  to  be  held  and  governed  by  the  United  States  as  a 
trust  for  the  Filipinos,  and  that  these  people  are  to  be  educated 
under  American  influence  until  they  can  stand  competition  and  that 
meanwhile,  their  country  is  to  be  kept  for  them,  no  matter  how  long 
the  educational  process  may  require.  The  first  Philippine  Commis- 
sion expressed  a  balanced  judgment : 

"  In  the  regions  inhabited  by  the  civilized  natives  sentiment  to- 
wards the  Chinese  varies  considerably  in  different  provinces  and 
islands.  Where  it  is  strongly  hostile,  the  Commission  feels  that  we 
are  bound  to  take  it  into  serious  consideration.  And  we  further  believe 
that  the  inhabitants  of  all  parts  of  the  archipelago  should  be  saved 
from  the  necessity  of  being  forced  to  compete  with  Chinese  labour 
under  conditions  such  that  they  cannot  hope  to  compete  with  success, 
always  provided  that  the  legitimate  economic  development  of  the 
country  is  not  thereby  retarded. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  we  feel  that  Chinese  labour  might  be  very 
advantageously  used  in  those  portions  of  the  archipelago  where,  from 

1  Lala,  The  Philippine  Islands,  p.  336. 


528  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  character  of  the  inhabitants  and  their  disposition  to  engage  in 
manual  toil,  or  from  the  absence  of  inhabitants,  and  the  well-known 
disinclination  of  the  civilized  native  to  leave  his  home  and  settle  in  a 
new  region,  it  would  not  come  into  competition  with  the  labour  of 
the  country. 

"  We  therefore  commend  to  your  careful  consideration  the  ques- 
tion as  to  how,  where,  and  for  what  purpose  the  Chinese  should  be 
allowed  to  enter  the  Archipelago.  "  ' 

There  are  now  about  100,000  Chinese  in  the  islands,  60,000  of 
them  in  Manila.  Whether  more  come  or  this  present  number  de- 
creases, these  people  offer  in  the  Philippines  as  in  America  a 
peculiarly  needy  and  inviting  field  for  missionary  work.  From 
California  and  Australia  streams  of  Christian  influence  and  financial 
contributions  have  flowed  from  the  Christian  Chinese  into  Kwang- 
Tung  Province  in  South  China.     Manila  should  be  a  similar  fountain.' 

It  will  not  be  if  opium  does  its  work  among  the  Chinese.  The 
Spanish  Government  sold  the  right  to  import  opium.  It  received 
from  the  contract  for  the  sale  in  1896-97,  576,000  pesos.  It  re- 
ceived the  same  year  from  lotteries  1,000,000  pesos.  Regarding 
these  two  items  of  revenue,  the  Taft  Commission  said  in  its  first 
report :  "It  seems  impracticable  to  resume  the  second  of  these  re- 
ceipts. Opium,  however,  is  a  very  legitimate  and  lucrative  subject 
of  taxation.  Any  repressive  effect  which  a  heavy  tax  on  opium  may 
have  on  its  consumption  is  a  clear  gain  to  the  well-being  of  the  com- 
munity, which  will  more  than  offset  the  loss  of  revenue.  Prohibition 
of  use  can  hardly  be  enforced,  and  in  view  of  the  fact,  that  a  high 
duty  would  lead  to  extensive  smuggling,  some  other  form  of  a  tax 
must  be  devised  to  make  opium  return  its  proper  contribution  to 
the  revenue."  3 

Now,  the  opium   curse   is  probably  the  worst  curse  in  the  world. 

Whoever  uses  it  regularly,  the  doctors  in  China  testify,  becomes  a 

slave  to  it.     And  its  effects  are  deadly.      "  I  have  been  engaged  in 

the  practice  of  medicine  among  the  people  of  China  during  the  past 

thirteen   years,"  says   Dr.  Beebe   of  Nanking,  "  and  have  seen  evil, 

and  nothing  but  evil,  coming  to  this  people  and  nation  through  the 

1  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  /goo,  Vol.  I,  p.  159. 
8  Brown,  The  Neiv  Era  in  the  Philippines,  Ch.  VIII. 

8  Report  of  the  Taft  Philippine  Commission,  Senate  Document  No.  112,  Fifty- 
sixth  Congress,  Second  Session,  p.  104. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  529 

opium  habit.  It  brings  the  most  misery  to  the  poorer  classes.  It  is 
not  uncommon  for  a  labourer  to  spend  from  one-third  to  two-thirds 
of  his  daily  wage  for  opium.  Can  any  say  that  such  a  state  of  affairs  is 
not  particularly  harmful  ?  My  nearest  neighbour  for  some  time  was 
an  opium-smoking  coolie.  One  by  one  he  sold  his  three  children 
to  gratify  his  habit.  At  last  he  sold  his  wife,  quit  his  desolate  house 
of  reeds,  and  wandered  a  vagabond  and  thief  to  prey  on  the  body 
politic.  Go  among  the  people  and  ask  for  their  opinion  of  the  habit 
and  you  will  not  only  find  a  universal  verdict  of  condemnation  but 
you  will  come  back  heart-sick  and  discouraged  by  the  ever-repeated 
story  of  sorrow  and  wrong,  fully  persuaded  that  the  opium  habit  is  a 
monstrous  evil,  powerful  in  its  harm  to  the  individual  and  to  the 
state."  • 

In  the  Chinese  army  the  rule  is  that  if  any  soldier  is  found  to  be 
an  opium  smoker,  he  is  at  once  dismissed.  The  Chinese  Govern- 
ment and  people  are  firmly  convinced  that  the  opium  habit  is  the 
curse  of  the  land  and  they  loathe  it  and  the  history  that  has  fastened 
it  upon  them.  Why  should  it  be  tolerated  in  the  Philippines  ?  "  Be- 
cause," it  is  said,  "  it  cannot  be  prohibited  "  ?  It  is  enough  to  reply 
that  Japan  has  prohibited  it  and  that  what  Japan  has  done  America 
can  do  in  the  Philippines.  The  opium  habit  once  spread  in  the 
Philippines  would  mean  moral  ruin  and  decay.  Doubtless  a  heavy 
tax  would  limit  it,  but  Japan  has  done  better. 

The  acquisition  of  the  Philippines  brought  nearly  three  hundred 
thousand  Mohammedans  under  the  American  flag.  And  the  Mo- 
hammedans brought  their  polygamy  and  slavery  with  them  and 
by  treaty  were  allowed  to  retain  their  institutions.  Article  Third 
of  the  treaty  with  the  Sultan  of  Sulu  declared,  "The  Moros  shall 
not  be  interfered  with  on  account  of  their  religion.  All  their  re- 
ligious customs  shall  be  respected."  And  Article  Ten  says,  "Any 
slave  in  the  archipelago  of  Sulu  shall  have  the  right  to  purchase 
freedom  by  paying  to  the  master  the  usual  market  value."2 

The  course  pursued  by  the  Commission  in  the  matter  of  slavery 
would  seem  to  be  the  only  wise  course. 

"  We  learned,"  says  the  Commission,  of  interviews  with  Sulu  chiefs,  "  that 
slavery  is  widespread  among  the  Moros,  but  at  the  present  time  exists  in  an  ex- 

1  Use  of  Opium  in  China,  pp.  yijf. 

*  Senate  Document  /j6,    Fifty-sixth  Congress,  First  Session,  p.  28. 


530  Missions  and  Modern  History 

tremely  mild  form.  The  old  slave-hunting  expeditions  have  nearly  ceased.  The 
Moro  datos  claim  that  they  no  longer  occur  at  all,  but  it  is  known  that  this 
statement  is  not  strictly  true,  as  the  Moros  of  Mindanao  still  occasionally  capture 
members  of  wild  tribes  in  the  interior  of  the  island.  The  Filipinos  formerly 
held  as  slaves  have  practically  all  been  liberated  by  our  troops,  although  it  is  pos- 
sible that  a  few  may  still  remain  in  bondage  in  the  Lake  Lanao  region.  Slaves 
who  desire  their  freedom  and  who  seek  protection  at  any  military  garrison  re- 
ceive it. 

"  The  large  majority  of  slaves  held  to-day  have  sold  themselves  for  debt  or 
are  the  children  of  those  who  have  sold  themselves,  the  obligations  of  parents 
being  inherited  by  their  offspring.  A  slave  may  secure  his  liberty  by  paying  to 
his  owner  an  amount  equal  to  the  price  paid  for  him,  but  should  he  sell  himself 
for  a  certain  sum  and  should  his  master  afterwards  be  able  to  sell  him  for  a  larger 
one,  he  must  repay  the  latter  amount.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  slaves  are 
treated  kindly,  and  they  are  frequently  allowed  time  and  opportunity  to  earn 
money,  so  that  it  is  possible  for  them  to  redeem  themselves  if  they  desire  to  do 
so.  The  casual  observer  finds  it  impossible  to  distinguish  them  from  members 
of  the  family  to  which  they  belong.  Military  officers  everywhere  expressed  the 
opinion  that  Moro  slaves  were,  on  the  whole,  so  well  satisfied  with  their  lot  that 
if  they  were  all  set  free,  the  majority  of  them  would  promptly  return  to  their  old 
masters  and  voluntarily  take  up  their  old  life  again.  This  statement  is  not  ad- 
vanced as  a  defense  of  the  system  of  slavery  which  prevails  among  the  Moros, 
but  rather  as  an  illustration  of  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  in  abolishing  it. 

"  An  attempt  at  the  present  time  to  use  force  in  securing  the  liberty  of  Moro 
slaves  would  inevitably  provoke  a  fierce  conflict  with  a  brave  and  warlike  peo- 
ple, and,  so  far  as  the  slaves  themselves  are  concerned,  would  meet  with  little 
appreciation.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
to  recognize  slavery  is  persisted  in,  and  the  taking  or  acquiring  of  new  slaves  is 
prevented,  the  question  will  settle  itself  in  a  generation  without  bloodshed  or  the 
bitterness  necessarily  engendered  by  an  armed  strife." ' 

The  missionary  duty  of  a  Christian  State  to  end  slavery  and 
polygamy  among  heathen  people  absorbed  by  such  a  state  will  be 
discharged  by  the  American  Government,  and  religious  liberty  for 
our  Mohammedan  wards  will  be  guaranteed.  Why  should  this  not 
be  seized  as  an  opportunity  by  American  Christians  to  convert  a  large 
body  of  Moslems  to  the  Christian  faith  ?  They  are  not  Moslems 
who  would  exert  any  measure  of  influence  upon  the  great  Moham- 
medan world,  but  it  would  be  something  to  break  off  this  most 
Eastern  of  all  the  outposts  of  Islam. 

When   it  became  evident  that  the  Philippine  Islands  were  to  pass 
1  Report  of  the  Philippine  Commission,  December,  igoo,  to  October,  igoi,  Part 
I.  P-  37- 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  531 

under  our  flag  and  their  long  sealed  doors  to  open  to  evangelical 
Christianity,  it  was  felt  by  the  American  missionary  organizations 
that  there  should  be  some  understanding  with  reference  to  the  oc- 
cupation of  the  islands  that  would  prevent  duplication  and  waste  and 
the  appearance  of  rivalry  between  different  denominations  and  that 
Would  secure  also  as  speedy  and  effective  an  occupation  of  the 
Whole  field  as  possible.  Conferences  at  home  were  held  to  secure 
this  end  and  in  Manila  the  first  missionaries  organized,  in  1901, 
"The  Evangelical  Union,"  whose  object  it  was  "to  unite  all  the 
evangelical  forces  in  the  Philippine  Islands  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing comity  and  effectiveness  in  their  missionary  operations." 
The  same  meeting  in  Manila  adopted  these  resolutions : 

"  Whereas,  the  evangelization  of  these  people  will  be  more  speedily  accom- 
plished by  a  division  of  the  territory,  thus  avoiding  waste  of  labour,  time  and 
money  arising  from  the  occupation  of  the  same  districts  by  more  than  one  society 
which  has  marred  the  work  in  the  other  and  older  fields,  Therefore : 

"  Be  it  Resolved,  that  each  mission  now  represented  on  the  field  accept  the 
responsibility  for  the  evangelization  of  certain  well-defined  areas,  to  be  mutually 
agreed  upon,  such  agreement  to  be  open  to  revision  at  the  end  of  three  years  by 
the  Evangelical  Union  at  its  regular  meeting." 

In  accordance  with  these  resolutions,  there  have  been  assignments 
of  islands  and  provinces  to  various  Protestant  agencies.  The  con- 
ditions are  new  as  yet  and  there  will  doubtless  be  many  readjust- 
ments but  since  it  has  seemed  impossible  to  establish  but  one  Protestant 
Church  for  all  the  islands,  all  our  American  Protestant  missions 
uniting  in  it,  a  plan  which  surely  would  have  been  the  best  con- 
ceivable, if  only  it  had  been  practicable,  it  has  been  a  distinct  gain 
to  have  some  understanding,  even  if  it  disappointingly  proves  to  have 
been  only  temporary,  as  to  territorial  division  of  the  field. 

Already,  the  Filipinos  have  responded  to  the  preaching  of  a  purer 
Christianity.  Indeed,  there  have  been  times  when  it  was  to  be 
feared  some  Filipino  parties  would  adopt.  Protestantism  as  a  sort  of 
political  religion.  Such  favourable  opportunities  for  presenting  its 
real  character  were  at  once  accepted  by  the  missionaries,  but  they 
have  escaped  from  any  entanglements  which  would  blur  the 
distinctly  spiritual  character  of  the  mission.  The  new  churches 
have  been  kept  what  they  should  be  and  have  grown  steadily  in 
numbers  and  influence.     Movements  within  the  Catholic  Church  or 


532  Missions  and  Modern  History 

reformed  Catholic  movements  detached  from  the  Church  have  already 
accomplished  much,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  normal  develop- 
ment of  the  islands  will  see  the  purification  and  spiritualization  of  the 
Catholic  Church  that  will  remain  in  them  and  the  solid  establish- 
ment of  the  Protestant  Church  in  every  community  of  the  country. 
How  hopeful  the  general  movement  is  may  be  learned  from  an 
appeal  issued  by  the  Evangelical  Union  of  the  Philippine  Islands  in 
January,  1904 : 

"  We  the  members  of  the  Evangelical  Union,  representing  all  the  evangelical 
missions  working  in  the  islands,  save  one,  feel  called  at  the  close  of  this  our 
third  annual  meeting,  to  present  the  following  memorial  to  our  several  con- 
stituencies. The  reports  of  progress  and  conditions  throughout  the  Archipelago 
bid  us  call  as  never  before  for  more  prayer,  more  workers  and  greatly  increased 
gifts  for  the  work  of  God  in  these  islands. 

"After  five  years  of  missionary  occupation,  we  are  convinced  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  overestimate  the  vastness  of  the  opportunities  which  are  presented 
to  the  Church  of  Christ  to  win  souls  among  the  Filipino  people.  Within  this 
brief  period  the  visible  results  of  our  labours  exceed  those  attained  in  other  fields 
after  fifty  or  even  seventy  years  of  missionary  occupation.  When  America  came 
to  the  islands,  thousands  were  already  separated  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  now  the  Aglipay  movement  is  breaking  the  yoke  from  millions 
more,  thus  opening  wider  still  the  doors.  At  least  one  third  of  the  seven  millions 
of  the  Filipino  people  are  severed  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  They  are 
spiritually  restless  and  are  searching  for  spiritual  streams  whence  their  thirst  may 
be  quenched.  Their  eagerness  to  hear  is  pathetic.  Their  readiness  to  hear  and 
accept  a  pure  gospel  is  astonishing  and  gratifying.  The  fields  are  more  than 
white,  they  are  dead  ripe. 

"  As  a  nation  we  are  labouring  and  spending  men  and  money  in  our  efforts  to 
provide  the  Filipino  people  with  the  proper  administration  of  justice,  a  good 
education,  and  honest  Government.  Hundreds  of  thousands  are  spent  yearly  in 
the  sanitary  regeneration  of  the  islands.  We  believe  that  in  order  to  confirm 
and  consolidate  the  good  results  of  all  these  efforts  we  must  strain  every  nerve 
to  give  this  people  that  Christian  character  which  is  born  of  the  gospel  and  is 
necessary  for  the  growth  of  their  nation.  This  work  is  essential  to  the  success 
of  our  nation's  plans  and  promises  to  the  Filipino  people. 

"  And  furthermore,  if  American  influence  is  to  go  out  over  all  the  Orient, 
there  must  be  in  these  islands,  through  which  it  will  be  exercised  a  strong  posi- 
tive Christian  sentiment  that  will  send  our  country's  message  on  its  way  to  the 
nations  of  Asia  in  all  its  truth  and  power.  The  creation  and  conservation  of  this 
sentiment  must  be  the  duty  of  the  Christian  Churches. 

"  In  so  far,  therefore,  as  we  fail  to  realize  and  fulfill  our  responsibilities,  will 
the  mission  of  America  in  the  Orient  be  a  failure. 


The  Going  of  the   Spaniard  533 

"  All  the  Churches  and  Societies  represented  in  this  Union/  the  Presbyterian, 
the  Methodist  Episcopal,  the  Baptist,  the  Disciples,  the  United  Brethren,  and  the 
Congregational,  together  with  the  American  Bible  Society  and  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  declare  it  as  our  solemn  opinion  and  conviction  that 
with  prompt  and  generous  support  a  million  of  these  souls  can  be  led  to  a  sav- 
ing knowledge  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  within  the  next  generation.  We  feel 
constrained  to  cry  out  for  immediate  reinforcements,  and  for  more  liberal  support. 
The  next  few  years  are  to  definitely  fix  the  religious  status  of  the  Filipino  people 
and  within  the  next  decade,  with  liberal  support  we  can  accomplish  that  which 
will  be  impossible  to  accomplish  in  a  century  if  we  neglect  the  wide  open  door 
that  God  has  set  for  us." 

The  acquisition  of  the  Philippines  has  profoundly  affected  America. 
Probably  the  consequence  of  this  act  in  America  will  be  far  more 
significant  for  the  world  than  in  the  Philippines  themselves.  There 
it  will  be  the  redemption  of  8,000,000  people ;  but  here  the  permanent 
alteration  of  the  opinion  and  destiny  of  80,000,000  now  and  of 
hundreds  of  millions  in  years  to  come.  The  Spanish-American  war, 
small  as  it  was  in  itself  and  its  immediate  physical  results  was  im- 
mense in  its  reflex  consequences. 

It  has  greatly  increased  our  commerce.  In  the  year  ending  June 
30,  1903,  our  business  with  our  non-contiguous  territory  already 
amounted  to  $100,000,000  and  this  is  but  the  beginning.  We  stand 
now  at  the  head  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world  in  the  volume  of 
domestic  exports.  In  1870,  we  stood  in  the  fourth  place  with  ex- 
ports of  $379,000,000;  in  1880  in  the  second  place  with  $824,000,- 
000;  in  1890  in  the  second  place  with  $845,000,000.  In  1902  we 
were  first  with  $1,392,087,672,  as  compared  with  Great  Britain, 
$1,379  000,000 ;  Germany,  $1,113,000,000;  France,  $818,000,- 
000;  Netherlands,  $696,000,000,  and  India  $408,000,000.  This 
growth  was  not  due  to  the  war  but  the  war  helped  to  promote  it. 

It  completed  the  ruin  of  Spain  and  pricked  the  bubbles  of  its 
empty  boastfulness.  It  broke  the  crust  of  American  political  ideals 
and  national  relations  and  flung  the  country  out  into  a  new  life.  We 
stand  in  consequence  in  new  responsibilities  to  the  world,  responsi- 
bilities which  are  distinctly  missionary  in  their  character.  In  a  sense, 
the  war  left  us  in  a  worse  situation  to  discharge  such  responsibilities. 
All  Spanish  America  felt  a  dislike  for  us.  Spanish  sympathy  in 
South  America  was  stronger  than  the  traditions  of  liberty  and  than 
the  dilution  of  republican  spirit  existing  to  the  south  of  us.     We  are 


534  Missions  and  Modern  History 

now  more  feared  also  because  the  American  republics  think  that  we 
may  clean  up  their  iniquities  next.1  Europe  also  distrusts  our 
disinterestedness.  "It  is  indeed  true,"  says  Professor  Reinsch, 
"  that,  in  the  eyes  of  European  nations,  the  fair  fame  of  the  American 
Republic  has  suffered  in  consequence  of  the  results  of  the  late  war. 
Not  accustomed  to  grant  the  validity  of  purely  humanitarian  and 
altruistic  motives  in  guiding  their  own  political  action,  they  set  down 
to  the  account  of  pure  hypocrisy  the  professions  made  by  America 
before  the  war,  and  believe,  or  affect  to  believe,  that  those  profes- 
sions were  constantly  calculated  to  veil  a  masterful  desire  for  terri- 
torial expansion.  It  will  probably  never  be  possible  to  make  Euro- 
pean nations  understand  the  real  complexity  of  motives  that  led  the 
American  nation  into  war  with  Spain.  Especially  will  it  be  difficult 
for  them  to  realize  how  large  a  part  real  sympathy  with  the  sufferings 
of  a  neighbouring  population,  and  impatience  engendered  by  daily  re- 
ports of  unceasing  warfare  and  unrelieved  misery,  played  in  bringing 
about  the  war.  Any  representations  tending  to  give  probability  to 
the  importance  of  these  factors  are  likely  to  be  discountenanced  in 
consideration  of  the  events  that  have  followed  the  war.  It  is  only  by 
strict  compliance  with  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  declarations  made 
when  entering  upon  the  war  that  the  United  States  can  redeem  her 
reputation  for  honesty  and  a  straightforward  policy.  For  this  reason, 
no  effort  should  be  spared  to  allow  the  populations  of  Cuba  and  the 
Philippine  Islands  the  greatest  measure  of  independence  consonant 
with  the  general  peace  of  the  world  and  the  security  of  life  and  prop- 
erty within  those  islands."  2 

At  the  same  time,  Europe  respects  us  far  more,  understanding  now 
something  of  the  irresistible  and  overshadowing  power  of  the  American 
nation,  just  beginning  its  history  and  the  development  of  its  capaci- 
ties and  resources  when  some  of  the  European  States  are  realizing 
that  they  are  near  the  end  of  theirs.  And  a  new  wonder  has  grown 
up  at  the  power  of  the  nation  in  directions  where  once  it  was  little 
regarded.  As  Mr.  Arnold  White  says,  contrasting  the  inefficiency 
of  the  British  Foreign  Office  with  the  skill  and  success  of  the 
American  State  Department,  "  The  United  States  State  Department  is 
generally  regarded  by  professional  diplomatists  who  know  its  inner 

1  Brown,  Latin  America,  p.  251. 
5  Reinsch,  World  Politics,  pp.  35  6f. 


The  Going  of  the  Spaniard  535 

workings  as  possessing  the  best  intelligence  department  regarding 
foreign  affairs  generally  of  all  the  nations.  The  United  States  intelli- 
gence department  has  full  knowledge  of  the  customs  prevalent  in 
foreign  diplomacy.  It  knows  who  the  secret  agents  of  the  various 
powers  are,  and  how  secret  service  money  is  employed.  It  is 
knowledge  of  the  old  diplomacy  that  induced  the  United  States  to 
inaugurate  a  policy  of  straightforward  business  dealing  with  other 
countries."  1  Mr.  Hay  has  carried  forward  American  diplomatic  af- 
fairs with  such  discretion  and  ability  and  Christian  temper  that  Amer- 
ican diplomacy  bids  fair  to  hold  as  unique  a  place  as  American  com- 
merce and  enterprise.  And  the  spirit  in  which  this  result  is  being 
attained  is  in  a  high  sense  the  missionary  spirit. 

All  misjudgment  of  our  course  in  the  Spanish  war  will  be  lived 
down.  We  did  right  and  we  shall  not  suffer  for  it.  And  in  other 
regards,  the  war  left  the  nation  in  a  vastly  better  position  to  dis- 
charge its  missionary  duty,  its  obligation  to  the  world.  We  had  an 
immediate  illustration  of  it  in  the  ability  of  the  Government  to  send 
troops  at  once  from  the  Philippines  to  take  part  in  the  relief  of  Peking 
in  1900.  In  Japan,  the  war  led  to  a  great  increase  of  respect  and 
admiration  for  America.  The  naval  battle  of  Manila  resulting  in  the 
annihilation  of  the  Spanish  fleet  without  the  loss  of  a  life  on  the 
American  ships,  save  one  from  heart  disease,  profoundly  impressed 
the  Japanese.  All  these  things  affect  the  work  of  missions  because 
they  affect  the  temper  and  the  thought  of  men. 

In  the  unfolding  of  Asia,  we  shall  bear  a  large  and  increasing 
part  and  the  occasion,  at  least,  of  our  new  position  has  been  the  ac- 
quisition of  the  Philippines,  which  has  made  us  an  Asiatic  power. 
As  Mr.  Foster  says,  "With  the  acquisition  of  the  Philippines, 
whether  wisely  or  unwisely,  the  United  States  has  assumed  towards 
those  countries  the  new  and  additional  relation  of  a  neighbour.  The 
enormous  development  of  the  resources  of  the  United  States  and  the 
increased  necessity  for  foreign  markets  have  strengthened  the  reasons 
which  have  controlled  its  policy  in  the  past,  and  the  proximity  of  its 
new  possessions,  with  their  millions  of  inhabitants,  has  brought  it 
nearer  than  ever  in  sympathy  to  these  peoples  and  their  governments. 
The  American  Union  has  become  an  Asiatic  Power.  It  has  new 
duties  to  discharge  and  enlarged  interests  to  protect.  But  its  record 
1  The  New  York  Sun,  July  27,  1903. 


536  Missions  and  Modern  History 

of  a  hundred  years  of  honourable  intercourse  with  that  region  will  be  a 
safe  guide  for  the  conduct  of  affairs.  Its  task  will  be  well  done  if  it 
shall  aid  in  giving  to  the  world  a  freer  market,  and  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Orient  the  blessings  of  Christian  civilization."  1 

But  is  our  tenure  of  the  Philippines  to  be  permanent  ?  No  one  can 
say.  It  is  easy  to  argue  the  question,  and  it  is  not  profitable,  as  to 
how  soon  the  Filipinos  are  likely  to  be  ready  for  self-government. 2 
After  all,  the  discussion  is  academic  and  speculative.  The  facts  of 
history  seem  to  justify  Mr.  Kidd's  view  that  "there  never  has  been 
and  there  never  will  be,  within  any  time  with  which  we  are  practically 
concerned,  such  a  thing  as  good  government,  in  the  European  sense, 
of  the  tropics  by  the  natives  of  these  regions."  3  It  is  a  good  thing 
to  hold  to  the  ideal  of  tropical  states  independent  and  self-governed, 
and  at  the  same  time  enlightened,  civilized  and  progressive.  As  Mr. 
Kidd  says,  in  India  and  Egypt  alike  the  most  successful  work  ever 
done  in  the  name  of  civilization,  "  has  been  performed  and  is  still  be. 
ing  performed,  only  under  the  fiction  that  the  power  which  repre- 
sents civilization  is  in  occupation  only  temporarily."4  It  is  well  to 
recognize  that  this  is  or  may  be  only  a  fiction  and  to  give  no 
mortgages.  Let  us  discharge  past  debts  and  go  forward  doing 
present  duty.  Future  destiny  will  be  cared  for  by  a  greater  will 
than  ours.  No  man  can  now  foresee  the  changes  which  time  has  in 
store  for  us  and  for  the  world  and  they  build  best  for  the  nation,  for 
mankind  and  for  God  who  build  with  a  faith  void  of  injustice  but 
void  also  of  fear. 

1  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  p.  438. 
3  Schurman,  Philippine  Affairs,  pp.  86,  102,  109. 

3  Kidd,  The  Control  of  t lie  Tropics,  p.  51. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  36. 


The  Boxer  Uprising 


XI 
THE  BOXER  UPRISING 

THERE  has  never  been  any  historic  movement  beyond  the 
bounds  of  our  own  country  which  has  caught  the  attention 
and  held  the  interest  of  the  American  people  as  the  Boxer 
Uprising  has  done.  This  has  been  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  we 
know  about  it  as  we  did  not  know  about  the  Indian  Mutiny,  the 
Tai-ping  Rebellion,  the  Crimean  War  and  other  great  movements. 
The  Atlantic  cable  was  not  laid  until  1866,  and  the  first  telegraphic 
communication  with  India  was  established  in  1863  and  with  China  in 
187 1.  But  beyond  this,  we  are  concerned  now  in  the  doings  of  other 
peoples,  especially  Asiatic  peoples,  as  we  have  never  been  before. 
We  have  ourselves  become  an  Asiatic  nation.  What  interests  and 
affects  them,  concerns  us.  And  in  this  particular  case  we  were  in- 
volved, both  by  reason  of  great  trade  interests  which  were  suffering, 
the  seat  of  the  troubles  being  where  our  trade  interests  were  greatest,  * 

1  "  American  commerce  with  China  seems  to  have  suffered  more  during  the 
disturbances  of  last  year  than  that  of  other  countries.  It  was  well  known  that 
the  exports  from  the  United  States  to  China  last  year  showed  a  marked  reduc- 
tion, but  it  is  only  through  the  official  figures  of  the  Chinese  Government,  just 
received  by  the  Treasury  Bureau  of  Statistics,  that  a  comparison  of  the  depression 
in  our  own  Chinese  trade  with  that  of  other  countries  can  be  obtained.  Imports 
into  China  from  Great  Britain  in  1900  exceeded  those  of  1899  by  more  than 
5,000,000  Haikuan  taels  ;  those  from  Russia  increased  a  million  Ilaikuan  taels ; 
those  from  Turkey  in  Asia,  Persia,  Egypt,  Algiers,  etc.,  showed  a  considerable  in- 
crease, and  those  from  Continental  Europe  a  slight  increase,  while  from  the 
United  States  the  imports  fell  from  22,288,745  Haikuan  taels  in  1S99  to  16,- 
724,493  in  1900.  This  was  a  reduction  in  imports  from  the  United  States  of 
about  twenty-five  per  cent.,  while  the  United  Kingdom  showed  an  increase  of 
more  than  ten  per  cent.,  Russia  more  than  twenty-five  per  cent.,  the  Asiatic 
countries  above  mentioned  forty  per  cent,  and  Continental  Europe  a  slight  in- 
crease. 

"  An  examination  of  the  details  of  the  import  trade  with  China  in  1900,  com- 
pared with  that  of  preceding  years,  also  justifies  the  conclusion  that  American 
trade  suffered  more  than  that  of  other  countries  during  the  year  1900. 

"  Cotton  goods  and  kerosene  are  the  largest  imports  into  China  from  the  United 
States,  and  they  come  into  competition  with  English,  Dutch  and  Japanese  cotton 
and  Russian  and  Sumatran  kerosene. 

539 


540  Missions  and  Modern  History 

and  because  two  classes  of  our  own  people  were  imperilled,  the  rep- 
resentatives of  our  Government,  and  the  representatives  of  our 
religion.  The  universal  interest  of  the  people  and  of  the  newspapers, 
not  in  the  fate  of  the  former  merely,  but  also  in  all  the  relations  of 
the  latter  to  the  Uprising,  revealed  how  truly  the  missionary  move- 
ment is  the  movement  of  Western  Christendom  upon  the  East,  and 
not  merely  an  enterprise  of  a  few  earnest  people  from  whom  it  de- 
rives its  support.  And  it  revealed  also  the  indissoluble  connection 
between  politics  and  religion  in  the  life  of  the  world.  Probably  there 
has  never  been  a  great  political  movement  whose  missionary  aspects 
have  been  so  discussed  and  acknowledged.  Indeed,  there  were 
many  who  professed  to  see  or  imagined  that  they  did  see  in  the 
Boxer  troubles,  little  but  the  lawless  consequences  not  of  the  mistakes 
only,  but  also  of  the  direct  purpose  and  work  of  missions. 

It  was  said  that  this  was  the  legitimate  outcome  of  an  attempt  to 
interfere  with  a  nation's  religion,  that  for  generations  the  missionaries 
had  been  attacking  Chinese  customs,  opinions  and  institutions,  that 
in  this  work  they  had  been  tactless,  imperious  and  unwise,  that  they 
had  claimed  and  acted  upon  authorities  which  they  did  not  possess, 
that  they  made  constant  trouble  and  then  appealed  to  their  Govern- 

"  The  figures  just  received  show  that  in  cotton  drills  the  imports  of  English 
goods  fell  from  78,887  pieces  in  1899  to  69,047  in  1900,  a  reduction  of  less  than 
10,000  pieces  ;  that  the  imports  of  Dutch  drills  increased  from  40,170  pieces  in 
1899  to  44,624  in  1900,  but  that  those  of  American  drills  fell  from  1,626,107 
pieces  in  1899  to  805,892  in  1900,  a  reduction  of  more  than  one-half  in  Amer- 
ican goods,  while  those  from  England  showed  a  reduction  of  less  than  fifteen 
per  cent,  and  those  from  the  Netherlands  an  actual  gain  of  more  than  ten  per 
cent. 

"  In  sheetings,  those  of  English  manufacture  fell  from  763,762  pieces  in  1899 
to  605,199  in  1900,  a  decrease  of  about  160,000  pieces,  while  those  of  the  United 
States  fell  from  3,975,903  pieces  to  2,312,494,  a  reduction  of  more  than  a  million 
and  a  half  pieces. 

"  Kerosene  oil  importations  of  the  American  product  fell  from  40,724,989  gal- 
lons to  34,447,112  gallons,  a  decrease  of  more  than  6,000,000  gallons;  that  from 
Russia  fell  from  35,695,116  to  32,708,757  gallons,  a  decrease  of  about  3,000,000 
gallons,  while  that  from  Sumatra  showed  an  increase  of  over  4,000,000  gallons, 
the  figures  for  the  Sumatran  oil  being  for  1899  11,993,202  gallons  and  for  1900 
16,424,155  "  {Philadelphia  Ledger,  December  9,  1901). 

"  Chinese  official  returns  show  that  the  imports  from  the  United  States  in  1902 
amounted  to  311,138,713  Haiku  an  tat  Is,  against  23,529,606  taels  in  1901,  22,288,- 
745  taels  in  1S99,  12,440,302  taels  in  1 S97  and  5,093,182  taels  in  1895.  The 
total  for  1902  is  the  largest  in  the  history  of  commerce  between  China  and  the 
United  States,  and  is  six  times  as  much  as  in  1895,  two  and  one-half  times  as 
much  as  in  1897,  about  thirty-five  per  cent,  more  than  in  1899  and  nearly  thirty 
per  cent,  larger  than  in  1901  "  {New  York  Tribune,  May  25,  1903). 


The  Boxer  Uprising  54] 

merits  for  gunboats  and  military  protection,  that  they  had  gone 
where  they  had  no  right  to  be,  and  against  the  wishes  of  the  Chinese 
people  and  the  will  of  the  Chinese  Government,  that  they  pursued 
the  maddest  methods,  rousing  the  people  to  indignant  fury,  that  they 
interfered  in  Chinese  litigation,  creating  of  the  native  Christians  a 
state  within  a  state,  and  introducing  into  China  by  means  of  their 
own  extra-territorial  status,  irritation  and  needless  friction,  and  that 
at  last  the  Chinese  people  rose  en  masse  to  drive  the  hated  mission- 
aries out  of  the  land,  and  making  no  distinction  between  the  guilty 
missionaries  and  innocent  traders  and  diplomatists,  visited  upon  all 
the  wrath  which  the  missionaries  had  aroused.  Just  as  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  declared  the  Indian  Mutiny  to  be  the  effect  of  unwarranted 
interference  with  the  religions  of  India,  and  so  shifted  to  the  mission- 
ary enterprise  the  burden  which  belonged  to  the  selfish  and  com- 
promising policy  of  which  he  was  the  personification,  so  now  many, 
not  including,  however,  either  the  ministers  and  consuls  or  the  re- 
spectable merchants  whose  judgment  ought  to  be  reliable,  charge 
the  missionaries  and  their  movement  with  responsibility  for  an  up- 
heaval which  has  cost  the  lives  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight 
Protestant  missionaries,  thirty-three  Catholic  priests  and  nuns,  and 
thousands  of  native  Christians,  and  involved  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment in  a  war  with  all  the  Powers  of  the  West  and  Japan. 

I  have  summarized  in  part  the  statements  made  about  missions  in 
China,  not  for  the  purpose  of  taking  them  up  for  reply  here, — they 
have  been  adequately  answered  elsewhere, — but  simply  to  indicate 
that  if  ever  there  was  a  political  movement  demanding  a  study  of  its 
missionary  aspects  it  is  the  Boxer  Uprising. 

More  or  less  mystery  surrounds  still  the  origin  and  character  of  the 
organization  popularly  called  in  the  West,  "  The  Boxer  Society." 
Some  writers  have  identified  it  with  the  Triad  Society 1  but  there  is 
no  evidence  of  this,  and  there  is  the  contrary  indication  in  the  fact 
that  the  Triads  are  an  organization  in  southern  China  rather  than  in 
the  north.  The  Triads  have  not  been  as  active  lately  as  either  of  the 
other  great  societies,  the  Ko-lao  Hui,  which  General  Tseng  Kwo-fan 
founded  in  the  days  of  the  Tai-ping  Rebellion  before  the  walls  of 
Nanking,  and  the  I  Ho  Ch'iian,  the  "  Righteous  Harmony  Fists,"  or 
"Boxers."  All  these  societies  have  been  hostile  to  the  Manchu 
1  Article  in  New  York  Independent,  June  2S,  1900,  pp.  1534-7. 


542  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

dynasty,  even  the  Boxers,  who  have  been  patronized  by  the  Empress 
and  used  for  her  own  purposes,  and  the  great  anti-foreign  movements 
have  been  caused  by  the  latter  two,  the  Ko-lao  Hui  having  fomented 
from  Hunan  the  riots  in  the  Yang-tse  Valley  in  1891,  and  the  Boxers 
having  brought  on  the  fiercest  anti-foreign  movement  in  the  history 
of  China's  dealings  with  the  West. 

The  failure  of  the  poppy  crop  in  northern  Kiang-su  and  the  over- 
flow of  the  Yellow  River  in  Shan-tung  in  1898,  led  to  conditions 
which  favoured  the  growth  of  the  I  Ho  Ch'iian,  especially  in  the 
western  section  of  Shan-tung,  where  it  appears  already  to  have  ac- 
quired no  little  popularity.  The  great  flood  swept  away  thousands 
of  villages  with  their  crops,  and  left  multitudes  of  people  destitute. 
Many  of  these  swelled  the  number  of  the  wandering  brigands  who 
lived  on  what  they  could  secure.  Others  were  forced  to  organize  in 
their  villages  companies  for  self-defence  against  robber  bands.  The 
origin  of  the  Boxers  is  quite  obscure  but  "Volunteer  Associated 
Fists,"  the  name  of  the  Boxer  Society,  would  just  describe  the  char- 
acter and  purposes  of  such  societies  for  the  maintenance  of  some 
semblance  of  order.  The  chasm  between  the  criminal  class  and  the 
police  force  is  not  wide  in  some  civilized  lands.  It  was  yet  narrower 
in  such  a  state  of  society  as  prevailed  in  west  Shan-tung,  where  the 
people  were  in  great  poverty,  and  some  stole  simply  because  they 
seemed  to  have  no  other  way  to  live.  Any  great  purpose  which  ap- 
pealed equally  to  both  classes  of  people,  which  offered  some  employ- 
ment and  some  escape  from  the  existing  social  conditions,  and  which 
moreover  allowed  some  vent  for  the  existing  feeling  of  discontent  at 
a  situation  whose  causes  were  not  analyzed,  was  sure  to  unify  these 
people  and  to  make  of  them  a  disturbing  power. ! 

Antagonism  to  the  Manchu  dynasty  was  not  sufficient  to  accomplish 
this.  In  the  Tai-ping  Rebellion  it  was  not  hostility  to  the  dynasty 
alone  that  accounted  for  the  startling  success  of  the  movement.  To 
this  were  added  religious  feeling,  and  the  influence  of  Western 
nations.  In  the  case  of  flu-  Tai-pings  these  produced  friendly  feel- 
ings towards  the  West,  for  the  religious  element  was  supplied  by  a 
distorted  form  of  Christianity,  and  was  aimed  against  Chinese  super- 
stition, while  the  Tai-pings  showed  no  political  resentment  at  the 
Opium  War.     They  only  lamented  its  effects  in  paving  the  way  for  a 

1  Smith,  China  i)i  Convulsion,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  X. 


^/ 


The  Boxer  Uprising  543 

larger  opium  trade.  They  were  influenced  deeply  by  the  fact  that 
the  war  had  shown  only  more  clearly  the  impotence  and  corruptions 
of  their  rulers.  Both  religion  and  political  interference  in  China 
had,  accordingly,  increased  the  Tai-pings'  hostility  to  the  throne. 
In  the  case  of  the  Boxer  movement,  these  two  elements  were  also 
present,  in  addition  to  traditional  antagonism  to  the  dynasty,  but 
instead  of  increasing  the  latter,  they  for  the  time  being  overcame  it, 
and  the  Boxer  Society  (as  indeed  also  the  Ko-lao  Hui,  in  which 
however  the  religious  element  was  Confucian  rather  than  Buddhist, 
and  therefore  more  passive),  which  had  as  its  "  main  object  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Mandarins,  became  the  ardent  supporter  of  the  reign- 
ing dynasty  "  ;  and  took  as  its  motto  the  words  "  Protect  the  Ch'ing 
dynasty;  exterminate  the  foreigners."  x 

The  religious  character  of  the  Boxers,  however,  is  not  recent.  It 
appears  to  have  had  in  it  for  years,  perhaps  from  the  beginning,  an 
element  of  intense  superstitious  fanaticism.  Its  exercises  consisted  of 
the  repetition  of  charms,  violent  contortions  of  the  body,  trances  in- 
cluding occult  pronouncements  and  stages  of  ecstasy.  "Each  band 
was  conducted  by  a  '  demonized  '  leader,  who,  by  the  selection  of  an 
epileptic  patient,  or  by  the  aid  of  hypnotism,  caused  a  '  medium '  to 
display  wild  and  unnatural  symptoms  or  to  utter  strange  and  peculiar 
speech,  this  serving  as  a  basis  for  the  claim  of  the  Society  to  spiritual 
power."  2  The  members  of  the  society  were  by  these  exercises  made 
immune  from  death  or  injury,  their  bodies  being  spiritually  protected 
from  wounds  by  bullet  or  sword.  Confucianism  with  its  indifferent 
agnosticism  could  not  supply  these  ideas.  They  spring  from  the 
Buddhist-Taoist  commingled  superstition  which  dominates  the  popu- 
lar mind,  and  perhaps  also  the  minds  of  the  great  majority  of  edu- 
cated Confucianists.  Buddhist  priests  appeared  as  leaders,  and  many 
of  the  schemes  of  the  movement,  it  is  said,  were  "  hatched  in  Bud- 
dhist monasteries  and  in  the  purlieus  of  the  Yamens."s  How  deep 
the  religious  feelings  of  the  Boxers  were  is  indicated  by  their  own 
confident  belief  that  they  were  secure  from  death  in  battle  and  their 
consequent  readiness  to  rush  into  conflict  with  the  impetuous  madness 
of  the  followers  of  the  Mahdi.     Their  proclamations,  also,  were  con- 

1  Hawks  Pott,  The  Outbreak  in  China,  p.  80. 

2  The  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Boxer  Movement,  p.  1. 

3  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  28,  1900,  p.  91. 


544  Missions  and  Modern  History 

stantly  couched  in  religious  language  and  appealed  to  the  religious 
conscience  of  the  people.  These  and  the  statements  of  the  Boxers 
indicate  that  they  truly  believed  that  they  were  aided  by  supernatural 
power.  A  writer  in  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  who  was  well  informed 
from  personal  observation,1  writes  that  the  "Mythology"  of  the 
movement,  succinctly  stated,  was  as  follows  : 

'« The  present  is  a  peculiar  era  in  the  history  of  the  Empire  when  the  interfer- 
ence of  power  from  heaven  is  to  rescue  it  from  the  clutches  of  all  foreigners  and 
from  the  defilement  of  all  foreign  innovations.  This  is  done  by  sending  down 
from  heaven  uncounted  legions  of  spiritual  soldiers,  generally  spoken  of  as  swords- 
men. These  spiritual  warriors  being  invisible  and  apart  from  human  agency 
impotent,  it  is  necessary  that  they  should  '  possess  '  ordinary  men  in  order  to  effect 
their  purpose.  The  so-called  '  drill '  has  for  its  object  to  induce  '  possession,'  and 
individuals  so  possessed  become  invulnerable  and  invincible  in  fight." 

The  Chinese  mind  fully  accepts  this  idea.  "Extravagant  as  it 
may  seem,  there  is  no  Chinaman,  high  or  low,  friend  or  foe  to  the 
society,  from  the  Empress  Dowager  downwards,  who  does  not  be- 
lieve in  the  reality  and  power  of  this  so-called  possession."  3  An- 
other singular  feature  of  the  movement  illustrating  its  mystical  char- 
acter was  the  place  of  children  in  it.  They  began  the  "drill  "  in 
the  villages,  and  it  was  only  when  rioting  and  violence  began  that 
the  men  appeared,  and  even  in  the  Boxer  armies  foreigners  were  as- 
tonished at  the  number  of  mere  boys  clad  in  the  striking  Boxer  uni- 
form of  red,  the  Chinese  wedding  colour.  The  writer  already 
quoted,  speaks  of  this.     The  children,  he  says, 

«  are  an  essential  factor  in  the  growth  of  the  society  in  every  place  where  it 
makes  its  appearance.  It  is  they  who  most  readily  induce  the  strange  trance 
characteristic  of  the  '  drill.'  To  them  the  mystic  messages  of  the  impending  ad- 
vent of  their  leaders  are  given.  They  are  its  plastic  and  docile  mediums.  We 
have  never  been  able  to  quite  clear  up  this  point,  but  their  supposed  possession  of 
supernatural  powers  seems  to  be  somehow  connected  with  the  marriage  ceremony. 
In  the  placards  are  mysterious  allusions  to  the  '  Light  of  the  Red  Lamp,'  and  the 
rebels  in  addition  to  wearing  red  turbans  and  red  girdles,  are  said  to  carry  red 
lamps.  There  is,  however,  a  deeper  meaning  than  this  attached  to  the  phrase 
Light  of  the  Red  Lamp  (Hung  Teng  Chao).  The  Red  Lamp  (Hung  TC-ng) 
is  an  invariable  adjunct  to  the  bridal  chamber;  Light  (Chao)  means  to  light, 
to  illuminate,  to   reveal.     .     .     .     It  is  certain  that  in  addition  to  much  other 

>  The  Rev.  Geo.  T.  Candlin. 

*  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  28,  1900,  p.  9 1. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  545 

mythology,  the  movement  involves  the  idea  of  a  revelation,  and  there  is  ground 
for  supposing  that  the  revelation  is  somehow  connected  with  the  institution  of 
marriage,  and  the  hung  teng  chao  may  be  translated  '  the  revelation  of  the  bridal 
chamber.'  "  ' 

There  is  mention  in  the  proclamations  repeatedly  of  Buddha,  "  In- 
asmuch as  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  Churches  have  de- 
ceived the  spirits  and  destroyed  the  (teachings  of)  the  sages,  and  are 
not  obedient  to  the  law  of  Buddha,  eighty  thousand  spiritual  soldiers 
will  come  in  the  clouds  to  sweep  out  the  foreigners  from  abroad  ;  " 
and  again,  "  Buddha,  the  Illuminated,  is  manifesting  his  sacred 
character  to  Governor  Yu  of  Shan-tung ;  "and  again,  "  Since  the  mul- 
titude have  ceased  to  believe  in  Buddha  and  are  unfilial  towards  their 
parents,  high  heaven  is  despatching  in  its  anger  a  million  spiritual 
soldiers  to  reward  the  good  and  punish  the  evil."  It  is  evident  that 
the  Boxer  Movement  was  thoroughly  religious  and  that  its  religious 
spirit  was  intensely  national  and  anti-foreign. 

But  to  religion  was  added  a  bitter  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  West 
on  other  grounds, — the  introduction  of  railroads  and  other  features  of 
Western  civilization,  and  the  appropriation  of  territory  by  European 
Governments  being  foremost  among  them.  We  shall  come  to  con- 
sider these  in  due  time.  It  is  sufficient  to  note  now  that  the  two 
things  which  fortified  Tai-ping  dislike  of  the  dynasty,  in  the  case  of 
the  Boxers  overcame  it  sufficiently  to  make  them  intense  supporters 
of  the  throne  against  the  dreaded  invasion  of  foreign  interference. 
And  yet  their  discontent  with  the  existing  political  situation  was  not 
forgotten.  The  Boxers  did  not  cease  to  criticise  their  own  Govern- 
ment because  they  supported  it  against  foreigners,  and  if  they  had 
succeeded  in  expelling  the  foreigners,  they  would  probably  have 
turned  soon,  unless  defeated,  to  the  overthrow  of  the  dynasty,  in  spite 
of  their  placards  which  read,  "Elevate  the  Manchus.  Kill  the 
foreigners." 

The  spirit  of  the  Boxer  Movement  as  thus  described,  is  well  set 
forth  in  a  proclamation  issued  on  April  3,  1900,  in  the  district  of  Pao- 
ting  Fu. 

"The  Chinese  Empire  has  been  celebrated  for  its  sacred  teaching.  It  ex- 
plained heavenly  truth  and  taught  human  duties,  and  its  civilizing  influence 
spread  as  an  ornament  over  river  and  hill. 

1  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  28,  1900,  p.  90. 


546  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"  But  all  this  has  been  changed  in  an  unaccountable  manner.  For  the  past 
five  or  six  generations  bad  officials  have  been  in  trust,  bureaus  have  been  opened 
for  the  sale  of  offices,  and  only  those  who  had  money  to  pay  for  it  have  been  al- 
lowed to  hold  positions  in  the  Government.  The  graduation  of  scholars  has  be- 
come useless,  and  members  of  the  College  of  Literature  and  scholars  for  the  Third 
Degree  are  in  obscurity  at  home.  An  official  position  can  only  be  obtained  at  the 
price  of  silver.  The  Emperor  covets  the  riches  of  his  ministers,  these  again  ex- 
tort from  the  lower  ranks  of  the  Mandarinate,  and  the  lower  Mandarins  in  turn 
(by  the  necessity  of  their  position)  must  extort  from  the  people.  The  whole  pop- 
ulace is  sunk  in  wretchedness  and  all  the  officials  are  spoilers  of  their  food.  The 
condition  of  the  Yamens  is  unspeakable.  In  every  market  and  in  every  field 
nothing  can  be  done  unless  money  be  spent.  The  officials  must  be  bribed,  all 
sorts  of  exactions  are  made.  These  officials  are  full  of  schemes  none  of  which  are 
in  accordance  with  the  three  principles.  Having  forfeited  their  heaven-derived 
disposition,  they  are  unreasonable  and  irregulated.  They  are  all  alike;  ill  gotten 
wealth  is  their  one  object.  Right  has  disappeared  from  the  world.  There  is 
nothing  but  squabbling  and  extortion  on  all  hands,  and  lawsuits  are  unnumbered. 
In  the  Yamens  it  is  of  no  avail  to  have  a  clear  case ;  unless  you  bribe  you  will 
lose  the  day.  There  is  no  one  to  whom  the  aggrieved  may  appeal ;  the  simple 
multitudes  are  killed  with  oppression,  and  their  cry  goes  up  to  heaven  itself  and 
is  heard  of  God.  Though  spiritual  beings  and  sages  are  sent  down  to  teach  right 
principles,  to  issue  good  books,  and  to  instruct  the  multitudes,  few  alas !  heeded. 
Who  is  there  that  understands  ?  The  evil  go  on  their  course  rejoicing,  while  the 
spiritual  powers  are  conscious  that  their  teaching  has  been  vain. 

"  Now  in  anger  the  heavenly  powers  are  sending  down  multitudes  of  spirits  to 
earth  to  make  inquiry  of  all,  both  high  and  low.  The  Emperor  himself,  the  chief 
offender,  has  had  his  succession  cut  off  and  is  childless.  The  whole  court,  both 
civil  and  military  is  in  an  unspeakable  condition.  They  indulge  blindly  in  mere 
amusement,  and  disregard  the  widow's  cry,  repenting  of  nothing  and  learning  of 
nothing  good. 

"  Greater  calamities  still  have  overtaken  the  nation.  Foreign  devils  have  come 
with  their  teaching,  and  converts  to  Christianity,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
have  become  numerous.  These  (churches)  are  without  human  relations,  but  be- 
ing most  cunning,  they  have  attracted  all  the  greedy  and  covetous  as  converts, 
and  to  an  unlimited  degree  they  have  practiced  oppression,  until  every  good  offi- 
cial has  been  corrupted,  and  covetous  of  foreign  wealth,  has  become  their  servant. 
So  telegraphs  and  railways  have  been  established,  foreign  rifles  and  guns  have 
been  manufactured,  and  machine  shops  have  been  a  delight  to  their  evil  nature. 
Locomotives,  balloons,  electric  lamps,  the  foreign  devils  think  excellent.  Though 
these  foreigners  ride  in  sedan  chairs  unbefitting  their  rank,  China  yet  regards 
them  as  barbarians,  of  whom  God  disapproves,  and  is  sending  down  spirits  and 
genii  for  their  destruction.  The  first  of  these  powers  which  has  already  de- 
scended is  the  Light  of  the  Red  Lamp,  and  the  Volunteer  Associated  Fists  will 
have  a  row  with  the  devils.     They  will  burn  down  the  foreign  buildings  and  re- 


The  Boxer  Uprising  547 

store  the  temples.  Foreign  goods  of  every  kind  they  will  destroy.  They  will 
extirpate  the  evil  demons  and  establish  right  teaching — the  honour  of  the  spirits 
and  the  sages — they  will  cause  to  flourish  their  sacred  teachings.  The  purpose 
of  heaven  is  fixed,  a  clean  sweep  will  be  made.  Within  three  years  all  will  be 
accomplished.  The  bad  will  not  escape  the  net  and  the  goodness  of  God  will  be 
seen.  The  secrets  of  heaven  are  not  to  be  lightly  disclosed,  but  the  days  of  peace 
to  come  are  not  unknown.  At  least  the  Yii  Mao  years  (1902,  1903).  The  song 
of  the  little  ones  ends  here  in  a  promise  of  happiness  to  men,  the  joy  of  escape 
from  rapine.     This  last  word  is  the  summary  of  all. 

"  Scholars  and  gentlemen  must  by  no  means  esteem  this  a  light  and  idle  curse 
and  so  disregard  its  meaning."  1 

This  proclamation  was  issued  in  the  spring  of  1900.  The  move- 
ment had  already  been  under  way  for  more  than  six  months.  It 
first  began  to  attract  attention  of  the  West  in  the  winter  of  1899  and 
1900.  It  had  begun  in  Shan-tung  Province  in  some  attacks  on  Roman 
Catholics,  which  soon  extended  to  embrace  Protestant  Christians  also, 
and  on  December  31st,  issued  in  the  murder  of  an  English  missionary, 
the  Rev.  Sydney  Brooks.  Frequent  warnings  of  what  was  coming  were 
sent  to  Peking  by  missionaries  and  others,  but  little  attention  was 
paid  to  them,  and  the  disturbance  extended  to  Chih-li  province,  the 
first  outbreak  occurring  in  an  attack  upon  a  Roman  Catholic  station 
on  the  same  day  on  which  Mr.  Brooks  was  killed.  Meeting  with  no 
opposition,  the  Boxers  swept  north,  fell  on  the  Roman  Catholic 
villages  near  Pao-ting  Fu,  shut  up  in  the  city  the  missionaries 
located  there,  poured  down  the  Lu  Han  railway,  destroying  it  as 
they  went  as  a  foreign  abomination,  killed  some  of  the  Belgian 
engineers  at  work  on  it,  the  rest  barely  escaping  with  their  lives 
through  an  aroused  and  excited  country,  to  Tientsin.  The  Boxers 
rushed  on  north  to  Peking  and  invested  the  city,  having  burned  and 
looted  every  station  on  the  railway  as  they  came.  The  movement 
swept  east  to  Tientsin,  and  surrounded  that  port,  while  in  Peking, 
admitted  to  the  city,  and  practically  capturing  the  reins  of  Govern- 
ment, the  Boxers  surrounded  the  foreigners,  destroyed  their  chapels 
and  outstanding  buildings,  and  finally  drove  them  altogether  into 
the  British  Legation,  and  laid  siege  to  them  there,  violating  the 
sanctity  of  the  persons  of  the  representatives  of  the  Western  powers, 
threatening  their  utter  destruction,  and  affronting  the  civilized  world. 
The  tide  of  hostile  feeling  which   had  thus  in  six  months  driven 

1  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  28,  1900,  p.  91. 


548  Missions  and  Modern  History 

almost  every  foreigner  out  of  the  interior  of  the  two  provinces  of 
Shan-tung  and  Chih-li,  laid  siege  to  all  who  had  taken  refuge  and 
were  defending  themselves  in  Peking  and  Tientsin,  and  destroyed 
hundreds  of  Christian  chapels  and  massacred  hundreds  of  native 
Christians,  swept  over  the  whole  Empire,  and  but  for  the  position 
taken  by  the  governor  of  Shan-tung  and  the  governors  of  the  prov- 
inces south  of  the  Yang-tse,  might  have  fulfilled  the  desire  of 
the  Boxers  and  driven  every  foreigner  out  of  the  Empire.  The 
attitude  of  these  governors,  however,  confined  the  disturbance  to  the 
provinces  of  Shan-tung  and  Chih-li,  Ho-nan  and  Shan-si,  and  as 
the  only  foreigners  in  the  latter  were  missionaries,  they  were  soon 
killed  or  expelled,  and  the  struggle  was  confined  to  Chih  li.  Tien- 
tsin was  relieved  on  July  13th  and  14th,  and  after  a  terrible  summer  of 
suffering,  not  the  least  part  of  which  was  absolute  separation  from 
communication  with  the  outside  world,  the  besieged  company  in 
Peking  was  rescued  on  August  14th,  the  Boxers  fled,  and  the  Chinese 
court,  conscious  of  its  participation  in  the  Uprising,  fled  with  them, 
and  took  up  its  headquarters  at  Si-ngan  Fu,  to  await  the  issue  of  the 
tedious  negotiations  for  a  basis  of  settlement,  rendered  the  more 
tedious  by  the  complication  of  the  situation  on  both  sides,  on  the 
side  of  the  foreign  nations  by  their  diversity  of  interests,  and  their 
mutual  suspicions,  and  on  China's  side  by  the  doubt  as  to  her  re- 
sponsibility for  what  had  taken  place,  and  as  to  her  ability  to  carry 
out  any  requirements  imposed  upon  her. 

That  the  Chinese  Government  was  responsible  for  the  Boxer  Up- 
rising was  of  course  the  assumption  underlying  the  negotiations  at 
Peking,  the  Uprising  having  so  entangled  itself  with  the  Imperial 
Government,  at  least  after  its  arrival  at  Peking,  as  to  involve  the 
latter  in  the  acts  of  the  movement.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Government  was  responsible  either  for  the  Uprising  or  for  the  failure 
to  suppress  it  from  the  beginning.  It  began  in  Shantung.  The 
ministers  in  Peking  were  warned  of  its  significance,  and  the  governor 
of  Shan-tung,  Yii  Hsien,  who  had  been  the  patron  of  the  Society,  was 
recalled  to  Peking.  Instead  of  being  reproved,  however,  he  was  re- 
ceived with  honour  by  the  Dowager  Empress,  rewarded,  and  ap- 
pointed governor  of  Shan-si.  It  was  after  this  tacit  approval  of  the 
Society  and  its  aims  that  the  Boxers  ventured  to  kill  Mr.  Brooks,  and 
it   was  subsequently  in  Shan-si,  in  Yii  Hsien's  own  home  and  with 


The  Boxer  Uprising  549 

his  personal  participation,  that  the  foulest  missionary  massacres  oc- 
curred.    If  the  Government   had  wished    to  do  so  it  could  have 
throttled   the  Uprising   at  its  birth.     On  the  other  hand,  its  course 
emboldened  the  leaders  and   encouraged  them  to  expect  Imperial 
favour   for   an ti- foreign  activity.      In    January,    1900,    an   Imperial 
Edict  warned    officials    not    to    confuse    the  patriots   drilling    for 
national  defence  with  rioters.     Two  months  before,  an  edict  had  ap- 
peared which  seemed    to   the  Boxers  like  direct  and  authoritative 
commendation  of  their  purpose  and   plans:    "Our  empire  is  now 
labouring  under  great   difficulties  which  are  becoming  daily  more 
serious.     The  various  Powers  cast  upon  us  looks  of  tiger-like  voracity, 
hustling  each  other  in  their  endeavours  to  be    first  to  seize  upon 
our  innermost  terrritories.     ...      It   is  our   special   command, 
therefore,  that  should  any  high  official  find  himself  so  hard  pressed 
by  circumstances  that  nothing  short  of  a  war  would  settle  matters,  he 
is  expected  to  set  himself  resolutely  to  work  out  his  duty  to  this  end. 
.     .     So  as  to  present  a  united  front  to  the  enemy,  entreating  and 
encouraging  their  officers  and  soldiers  in  person  to  fight  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  their  homes  and  native  soil  from  the  encroaching  foot- 
steps of  the  foreign  aggressor.     Never  should  the  word  «  Peace '  fall 
from  the  mouths  of  our  high  officials.     ...     If  only  each  and  all 
of  you  would  prove  his  loyalty  to  his  Emperor  and  love  of  country, 
what,  indeed,  is  there  to  fear  from  any  invaders  !     Let  no  one  think 
of  making  peace,  but  let  each  strive  to  preserve  from  destruction  and 
spoliation  his  ancestral  home  and  graves  from  the  ruthless  hands  of 
the  invader." 

It  has  been  urged  by  some  that  the  Chinese  Government  did  not 
formally  participate  in  hostilities  until  the  foreign  admirals  had  taken 
the  Ta-ku  forts  on  June  17th.  This  might  be  true,  but  it  would 
not  alter  the  fact  that  the  necessity  for  taking  the  forts  sprang  from 
the  acts  and  attitude  of  the  Government,  and  that  this  defence  is 
technical  and  not  substantial.  If  the  forts  had  not  been  taken  when 
they  were,  both  Peking  and  Tientsin  would  probably  have  fallen 
before  the  Chinese  troops,  made  up  of  Boxers  and  Imperial  soldiers 
alike.  And  there  is  evidence  enough  of  the  complicity  of  the  Gov- 
ernment or  of  a  responsible  section  of  it  in  the  Boxer  disturbance 
antedating  the  capture  of  the  Ta-ku  forts.  Prince  Tuan,  who  was 
made  president  of  the  Tsung-li  Yamen  and  who  dictated  the  Gov- 


$$o  Missions  and  Modern  History 

ernment's  course  during  its  most  bitterly  anti-foreign  stage,  was  one 
of  the  leading  officials  of  the  Boxers.     And  others  high  in  authority 
were  in  its  secret  councils.     And  as  for  the  Dowager  Empress  her- 
self, a  fair-minded  and  just  man  has  said  what  may  perhaps  be  the 
verdict  of  history,  what  at  least  was  the  verdict  of  almost  all  foreigners 
in  China  at  the  time.       "  Had  this  wretched  and  cruel  woman," 
said  the  Rev.  George  B.  Smyth,  "  been  so  minded,  and  had  she  so 
ordered,  the  movement  could  have  been  crushed  long  before  it  be- 
came dangerous ;  but  she  refused  even  to  attempt  to  put  it  down, 
and  degraded  any  official  who  was  honest  enough  to  oppose  it  and 
protect   the  Christians  and  foreigners  within  his  jurisdiction.     And 
all  because  she  thought  she  saw  in  the  strength  of  the  Uprising,  in 
its  fierce  fanaticism,   in  its  murderous  hostility  to   foreigners,    the 
means  of  accomplishing  the  most  cherished  ambition  both  of  herself 
and   of  the   bigoted   crew  of  Manchu  reactionaries  who  surrounded 
her,  the  expulsion  from  China  of  all  foreigners  and  of  all  the  ideas, 
religious,  social  and  political,  which  foreigners  represent."  '     Per- 
haps, when  we  have  got  further  away  from  these  sad  events  we  shall 
see  them  in  a  little  different  relationship.     Possibly  then  we  shall 
appreciate   the   Chinese   view   more   fully.     There   was  need   of  a 
patriotic   preparation  among  the  people  for  national  defence.     The 
Dowager  Empress  did  right  to  encourage  a  patriotic  organization  to 
spread  national    sentiment,   and  get  ready  for  national  emergency. 
She  did  wrong  to  use  as  unguarded  language  as  she  did.     She  did 
greater  wrong   in    continuing    to   be  herself  the  blind,  obstructive 
woman  she  was,  and  in  yielding  herself  to  advisers  of  the  same  sort. 
She  had  no  right  to  be  corrupt  and  to  honour  corrupt  men,  some  of 
whom  were  selling  the  interests  of  the  Government  the  Boxers  were 
desiring  to  protect.     But  surely  she  did  not  contemplate  such  a  de- 
velopment as  occurred.     She  was  getting  ready,  perhaps,  for  a  great 
criminal  assault  on  foreigners  in  China,  or  perhaps  only  for  such  a 
defence  of  China  as  continual  foreign  aggression  made  her  feel  was 
imperatively  needed   and  might  be  demanded  at  any  hour.     The 
movement,  however,  escaped  from  control,  and  then  instead  of  sup- 
pressing it,  she  let  it  go,  and  flung  herself  in  with  it,  and  allowed 

1  China  Against  the  World,  p.  4  ;  Journal  of  the  American  Association  of 
China,  January,  1901,  pp.  g(;  The  Independent,  November  22,  1900,  Art.  "A 
Chinese  Account  of  the  Siege  of  the  Legations  "  ;  The  Fortnightly  Review, 
November,  1900,  Art.  by  Sir  Robert  Hart. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  551 

things  to  be  done  in  her  name,  such  as  the  Edict  of  June  20,  order- 
ing the  extermination  of  all  foreigners  in  China,  which  were  horrible 
and  atrocious,  and  revealed  in  her  a  heart  tenfold  blacker  than  that 
of  Hung  Siu-tsuen,  the  success  of  whose  rebellion  would  have 
shut  out  of  history  the  mature  life  of  the  evil  woman  who  has  ob- 
structed the  will  of  God  for  China  for  more  than  half  a  century. 

This  hasty  sketch  of  the  Boxer  Uprising  has  indicated  what  any 
attempt  at  an  honest  statement  would  indicate,  namely,  that  it  was 
an  anti-foreign  movement,  and  not  simply  or  principally  an  anti- 
missionary  movement.  The  same  conclusion  might  have  been  reached 
by  examining  the  grounds  of  criticism  of  missions  on  which  some 
rested  the  judgment  that  the  Uprising  was  the  product  of  missions. 
Such  an  examination  would  have  shown  the  incompetence  of  the  cause, 
to  produce  such  an  effect.  A  simple  historic  statement,  however,  suf- 
fices to  show  that  the  Uprising  was  primarily  a  patriotic  revolt  against 
Western  influence,  and  that  missions  suffered  as  part  of  the  great 
movement  by  which  the  West  is  irresistibly  projecting  itself  upon  the 
East.1     If  the  West  had  come  in  the  missionary  enterprise  alone  there 

1 "  Bishop  Merel  of  Kwang-tung  province,  has  sent  this  interesting  document  to 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith.  It  is  one  of  the  many  proclamations 
which  helped  to  incite  the  terrible  massacres  in  China.  Unfortunately  there  are 
grounds  for  the  indignation  of  the  writer,  which  will  awaken  sympathy  even 
among  his  opponents  "  {Annals  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  January  and  Feb- 
ruary, 1902,  p.  50)  : 

"  Providence  has  appointed  me  the  Peacemaker  and  Saviour  of  China.  I, 
therefore,  Li,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Boxers,  whose  motto  is  '  Justice  and 
Peace,'  entreat  you  to  unite  with  us  in  driving  out  the  foreign  enemies,  in  giving 
peace  to  our  nation,  and  prosperity  to  our  people. 

"  We  consider  as  a  foreigner  whoever  belongs  neither  to  our  kindred  nor  to 
our  race.  The  Westerners  are  doubly  foreigners;  for  they  come  from  other 
climes,  and  are  descended  from  a  wholly  different  people.  The  holy  religion  of 
Confucius  has  never  lightened  them ;  they  have  never  become  civilized  agreeably 
to  the  laws  of  the  Empire.  They  cultivate  innovations  and  introduce  absurd  cus- 
toms. They  no  longer  walk  in  the  path  of  their  iorefathers ;  they  have  lost  the 
memory  of  their  ancestors. 

"  During  the  twenty  years  of  his  reign  our  most  noble  Emperor,  successor  to 
the  princely  rulers  of  China,  has  not  had  the  heart  to  expel  Europeans.  He  has 
been  guided  by  superhuman  kindness  ;  and  has  imitated  the  hospitality  of  the 
former  kings  towards  strangers.  He  has  been  most  liberal  to  them  ;  loaded  them 
with  favours,  and  concluded  treaties  of  alliance  with  them.  Europeans,  you  have 
ungratefully  supposed  that  fear  dictated  his  policy  ! 

"  Though  the  foreigners  are  heavy  and  dull  by  nature,  they  have  employed 
nothing  but  trickery.  First  they  came  to  us  as  traders ;  then  as  preachers ; 
finally  they  exacted  indemnities  from  us,  only  to  provoke  a  conflict.  They  forgot 
the  favours  of  the  Emperor.  They  were  strong  in  the  support  of  corrupted  minis- 
ters; they  have  realized  large  profits  from  appropriating  our  taxes,  relying  on  the 
Mandarins  to  squeeze  it  out  of  the  impoverished  people. 


552  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

would  have  been  no  Uprising.  "The  Chinese  as  a  class,"  says  Mr. 
Foster,  "are  not  fanatic  in  religion,  and  if  other  causes  had  not  operated 
to  awaken  a  national  hostility  to  foreigners,  the  missionaries  would 
have  been  left  free  to  combat  Buddhism  and  Taoism,  and  carry  on 
their  work  of  establishing  schools  and  hospitals."  '  "  Unlike  Hindu 
or  Mohammedan,"  says  Dr.  Martin,  "the  ordinary  Chinese  is 
so  far  from  fanaticism  that  he  appears  to  be  almost  destitute  of 
religious  sentiments.  Not  one  attack  on  missionaries  that  I  ever  heard 
of,  was  made  by  Buddhists,  Taoists  or  any  other  sect  on  the  ground 
of  religious  differences."  a  And  though  Buddhism  appears  to  be 
made  a  ground  of  appeal  in  the  Boxer  placards,  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  it  is  in  the  same  sense  in  which  religious  prejudice  was 
appealed  to  during  the  Indian  Mutiny,  namely,  to  arouse  emotion 
when  the  grounds  of  action  were  civil  and  political.  The  thoughts  of 
the  Chinese  are  civil  thoughts.  They  are  not  a  religious  people,  and 
of  purely  religious  questions  are  as  tolerant  people  as  are  to  be  found 

"  What  is  still  more  insulting,  they  have  overthrown  our  laws,  unjustly  seized 
on  our  territory,  and  desecrated  our  burial-places.  Who  can  tell  the  misfortunes 
of  China  ?  What  nation  has  suffered  like  ours  ?  The  more  one  thinks  of  it  the 
more  detestable  he  finds  all  Europeans  and  their  influences.  To  our  over- 
indulgent  kindness  they  have  answered  only  with  increasing  violence.  It  is  the 
common  opinion  ;  and  from  all  ranks  a  cry  for  vengeance  arises. 

"  More  outrageous  still,  is  to  see  the  magistrates  of  our  beloved  Emperor  take 
the  foreigners  under  their  protection ;  to  see  the  sad  spectacle  of  inhabitants  of 
our  Celestial  Kingdom  adopting  the  religion  from  the  West,  thus  increasing  the  in- 
solence of  Europeans,  and  helping  on  their  design  to  dismember  China.  Such 
conduct  is  unbearable,  and  richly  deserves  punishment.  This  is  why  we  raise 
high  throughout  the  Empire  this  banner  of  justice.  We  shall  stand  united.  We 
shall  form  a  bulwark  against  our  enemies.  Be  brave,  that  we  may  arise  to  expel 
our  executioners,  and  drive  out  our  oppressors. 

"To  avenge  our  Government  first,  then  give  freedom  to  its  humble  subjects; 
this  is  the  watchword  of  the  noble  society  '  Gni-wa-koung.'  We  would  destroy 
the  religions  from  the  West,  for  not  till  then  can  we  recall  our  soldiers  from  the 
front.  We  would  exterminate  every  European,  and  reenter  as  victors,  to  enjoy 
our  beloved  fatherland.  Let  all  who  are  for  us  unite  with  our  society.  Let  the 
whole  Empire  enlist  in  our  ranks,  on  the  receipt  of  this  manifesto. 

"  To  all  native  Christians  we  say  :  «  Return  to  your  former  religion  ;  you  see 
the  dangers  threatening  you,  but  be  converted  and  you  will  escape  them.  If  you 
obstinately  persevere  in  the  same  opinions,  you  will  suffer  fearful  torments. 
Mandarins  will  be  dealt  with  as  traitors.  Other  Christians  will  be  hunted  down 
and  punished  as  thieves  or  highwaymen ;  their  bodies  will  be  quartered,  and  their 
relatives  put  to  death  before  their  eyes.' 

"  Let  no  one  accuse  me  of  undue  severity ;  but  let  every  one  prepare  to  obey 
my  orders,  and  fear  to  transgress  them. 

"  Such  is  my  program." 

xThe  Hon.  John  W.  Foster  in  The  Missionary  Herald,  October,  1900,  p.  396. 

a  A  Cycle  of  Cathay,  p.  44. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  553 

in  the  world.  "  Our  own  opinion,"  says  Chang  Chih-tung,  "  is  that 
in  order  to  advance  Confucianism  we  must  reform  the  Government, 
and  not  everlastingly  combat  other  religions.  .  .  .  The  higher  class 
of  Chinese  should  carefully  consider  the  situation,  and  should  tolerate 
the  Western  religion  as  they  tolerate  Buddhism  and  Taoism.  Why 
should  it  injure  us?  "  '  Chinese  anti-foreign  feeling  does  not  spring, 
therefore,  in  any  prominent  way  from  religious  fanaticism,  nor  is  it 
directed  especially  at  the  missionaries  as  the  representatives  of  religion. 
Their  antipathy  is  anti-foreign,  not  anti-missionary ;  and  anti-mis- 
sionary only  because  anti-foreign,  and  because  the  Chinese  when  ex- 
cited fail  to  draw  distinctions  which  they  are  ready  to  see  when 
sober.  "The  rabble,"  says  Chang  Chih-tung,  "do  not  consider 
whether  a  man  is  a  missionary  or  not,  or  whether  he  is  a  European  or 
American.  Without  any  reason  whatever  the  innocent  man  is  often 
beaten  by  the  Chinese,  who  cannot  tell  whether  he  is  a  custom-house 
officer,  an  assistant  of  some  Mandarin,  a  traveller,  or  a  clergyman. 
All  are  hustled  alike."2  The  Shameen  riot  in  Canton  in  1883,  was 
a  purely  secular  riot,  but  the  missionaries  felt  the  effects  of  it  almost 
equally.  In  the  riot  at  Wu-sueh,  near  Hankow  in  1891,  Mr.  Argent 
of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  and  Mr.  Green  of  the  Chinese 
Imperial  Customs  Service,  died  together.  If  Mr.  Brooks  was  killed 
in  Shan-tung,  Mr.  Margary  was  killed  at  Manwyne  in  Yunnan, 
and  the  former  was  a  mob  murder,  while  the  latter  crime  was 
countenanced  by  the  Governor  General  and  executed  officially.3 
It  is  futile  for  any  class  to  separate  itself  from  other  classes  in 
this  matter.  All  foreigners  are  popularly  classed  together,  and 
merchants  and  ministers  waste  their  time  who  try  to  make  of  the 
Chinese  problem  a  mere  missionary  problem.  And  yet,  in  a  higher 
sense  that  is  just  what  it  is,  and  if  it  is  the  relationship  of  missions 
to  the  general  movement  of  the  Western  nations  and  civilization 
which  compels  it  to  share  the  anti-foreign  feeling  aroused,  this 
general  movement  also  is  detested  because  it  is  in  a  real  sense  a 
missionary  movement,  proposing  change,  and  breaking  down  the  treas- 
ured customs  and  traditions  by  the  introduction  of  new  forces  and 
revolutionary  ideas.      And  many  who  are  wise  perceive  this.      "  I 

1  China's  Only  Hope,  pp.  144L 

2  Ibid.,  p.  146. 

:;  Douglas,  Society  in  China,  pp.  27  if. 


554  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

venture  to  say,"  said  a  representative  of  the  Hongkong  and  Shanghai 
Bank,  at  a  meeting  in  Shanghai  in  December,  1900,  "that  neither 
missionary  nor  merchant  can  stand  alone.  Our  interests  in  this  coun- 
try are  too  closely  identified.  We  must  stand  or  fall  together.  We 
are  all  missionaries  in  spite  of  ourselves.  If  I  appeal  now  for  greater 
breadth  of  view,  for  more  mutual  forbearance,  in  a  word,  for  increased 
unity,  it  is  because  I  am  persuaded  that  only  when  and  not  until  the 
missionary  and  mercantile  forces  are  united,  can  we  look  for  real 
and  lasting  success  in  the  great  civilizing  work  to  which,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  we  are  all  committed."  * 

If  any  distinction  is  to  be  made  between  the  different  forces  com- 
posing the  Western  propaganda  in  China,  and  I  am  going  on  to  in- 
sist upon  some  distinctions,  it  is  claimed  that  missions  are  the  least 
offensive  to  the  Chinese,  and  the  least  feared.2     The  right  to  trade- 
in  five  open  ports  was  extorted  from  the  Chinese  as  the  result  of  the 
Opium  War.     The  right  to  profess  and  propagate  Christianity  in  the 
ports  was  willingly  conceded  by  edict  under  no  such  pressure.     The 
treaties  drafted  at  the  close  of  the  Arrow  War  specifically  acknowl- 
edge Christianity  and   the  right  of  the  missionaries  to  propagate  it. 
It  has  been  stated  that  the  most  favourable  clause  in  these  treaties,  the 
provision  in  the  French  Treaty  allowing  the  Catholic  missions  to  buy 
land  and  build  houses  in  the  interior,  was  smuggled  into  the  treaty, 
and  that  the  Chinese  did  not  have  courage  to  resist  it.3     There  is  no 
evidence  of  this.     There  is  evidence  that  the  clause  was  put  where 
it  is  in  the  Chinese  version  of  the  treaty,  with  the  knowledge  and 
consent  of  the   Chinese  negotiators,   and  has  always  been  acknowl- 
edged by   them,  and   it  is  known  that  the  clause  of  toleration  in 
the  American  treaty  owes  practically  nothing  to  the  United  States  of- 
ficial representative  and  any  pressure  he  used.4 

1  Thirteenth  Annua!  Report  of  the   Society  for   the  Diffusion  of  Christian 

Knowledge,  p.  66. 

2  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  pp.  410-42 1. 

3  Gorst,  China,  p.  174. 

*  S  Wells  Williams  was  one  of  the  interpreters  with  Mr.  Reed,  the  American 
minister,  and  he  wrote  in  a  letter  in  1878  a  full  account  of  how  the  toleration 
clause  came  to  be  in  the  American  treaty :  «  As  the  matter  of  the  '  Toleration 
Clauses'  in  the  treaties  of  1858  has  become  one  of  general  interest  to  the  mission 
body  in  China,  I  regret  that  the  statement  concerning  it  in  the  report  of  the 
Shanghai  Conference  should  not  have  been  more  accurate.  The  toleration  of  Chris- 
tianity was  not  brought  forward  by  the  Chinese  commissioners  in  any  shape,  for 
it    was   a    point  upon  which  they  were  wholly  ignorant  as  a  religious  question. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  555 

Again,  in  1 871,  the  famous  memorandum  of  the  Tsung-li  Yamen 
on  the  missionary  question  declared,  "The  Chinese  Government 
.  .  .  is  not  opposed  to  the  work  of  missions."  And  it  speaks  of 
"  the  genuine  desire  of  the  Chinese  Government  to  extend  an  efficient 

The  Russian  Minister  was  the  first  to  formulate  an  article  on  this  subject,  and  in 
the  discussion  which  ensued  as  to  his  draft  of  a  treaty  presented  to  the  Chinese 
officials,  they  are  said  to  have  expressed  their  willingness  to  allow  missionaries 
to  travel  through  the  country,  inasmuch  as  these  could  usually  speak  the  language  ; 
they  opposed  a  like  permission  to  merchants,  who  could  not  do  so,  and  this 
ignorance  was  sure  to  breed  trouble.  These  officials  knew  the  Russian  priests  in 
Peking  to  be  quiet,  industrious  men,  and  were  doubtless  willing  enough  to  admit 
them  to  further  privileges,  but  they  could  give  no  opinion  on  the  general  tolera- 
tion of  Christianity,  for  they  knew  practically  nothing  of  its  peculiar  tenets. 

"  The  next  day  I  got  the  Chinese  text  of  this  article  and  drew  up  a  similar 
one  for  the  U.  S.  treaty,  leaving  out  the  proviso  that  '  a  certain  number  of  mis- 
sionaries would  be  allowed,  and  inserting  the  two  names  for  Protestant  and 
Roman  Catholic  churches,  so  as  to  bring  the  former  distinctly  before  them  as  not 
the  same  as  the  Roman  and  Greek  churches;  it  was  otherwise  different  in 
phraseology  but  not  in  spirit.  The  night  before  the  treaty  was  signed,  a  note 
was  sent  from  the  Chinese,  rejecting  this  article  altogether,  on  the  ground  that 
Protestant  missionaries  had  their  families  with  them,  and  must  be  restricted  to  the 
open  ports  ;  the  inference  was  therefore  pretty  plain  that  the  novelty  of  foreign 
women  travelling  about  the  country  had  presented  itself  to  their  minds  as  an  ob- 
jection to  allowing  Americans  to  preach  Christianity.  As  soon  as  I  could  do  so  I 
drew  up  another  form  of  the  same  article,  and  started  off  next  morning  to  lay  it 
before  the  Imperial  Commissioners.  It  was  quite  the  same  article  as  before,  but 
they  accepted  it  without  any  further  discussion  or  alteration  ;  however,  the  word 
'  whoever  '  in  my  English  version  was  altered  by  Mr.  Reed  to  '  any  person, 
whether  citizen  of  the  United  States  or  Chinese  convert,  who  ' — because  he 
wished  every  part  of  the  treaty  to  refer  to  United  States  citizens,  and  cared  not 
very  much  whether  it  had  a  toleration  article  or  not.  I  did  care,  and  was  thank- 
ful to  God  that  it  was  inserted.  It  is  the  only  treaty  in  existence  which  contains 
the  royal  law.  I  have  always  regarded  the  present  article  as  better  than  the  dis- 
carded one ;  that  in  the  British  treaty  was  abridged  from  it,  and  I  understood  at 
the  time  that  it  would  not  have  been  inserted  if  ours  had  not  contained  such  a 
clause.  It  must  be  said,  moreover,  that  if  the  Chinese  had  at  all  comprehended 
what  was  involved  in  these  four  toleration  articles,  they  would  never  have  signed 
one  of  them.  In  the  Chinese  Repository  you  will  find  a  partial  toleration  of  our 
religion  by  the  Emperor  Taokwang,  but  this  was  only  a  rescript  and  did  not 
carry  with  it  the  weight  of  a  treaty,  and  during  the  fourteen  years  which  had  in- 
tervened since  its  promulgation  it  had  pretty  much  lost  its  effect. 

"  I  could  never  ascertain  who  had  a  hand  in  causing  the  rejection  of  my  first 
form  of  the  article,  but  think  that  it  was  some  one  connected  with  the  French 
legation.  The  harsh  and  unjust  criticisms  of  some  persons  on  these  articles 
in  i860  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  pulling  and  hauling  they  have  since  re- 
ceived ;  but  it  is  much  easier  to  find  fault  and  overthrow  than  to  improve  and 
build  up.  Though  Christianity  does  not  depend  upon  treaties  for  its  progress 
and  power,  these  articles  have  proved  to  be  a  check  upon  the  native  officials,  who 
have  been  taught  therein  not  to  destroy  what  they  did  not  approve.  I  thank  God 
that  the  Imperial  Government  was  thereby  bound  not  to  become  a  persecuting 
Government,  as  it  has  more  than  once  since  wished  to  be  "  {Life  and  Letters  of 
S.  Wells  Williams,  pp.  27of.). 


556  Missions  and  Modern  History 

protection  to  missionaries"  in  the  interior.  The  evidence  that  of 
the  foreign  forces  at  work  in  China  missions  are  the  least  unpopular, 
when  we  take  into  consideration  their  immense  extent  as  compared 
with  the  field  affected  by  other  forces,  might  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely. It  is  sufficient  here  to  point  out,  as  Dr.  Martin  does,  that  of 
the  outbreaks  of  1891,  in  China,  almost  all  were  on  the  banks  of  the 
Yang-tse  and  at  ports  of  trade,  nor  were  they,  save  in  one  instance, 
specially  aimed  at  missionaries.  "  Of  the  hundreds  of  missionaries 
living  away  from  the  river,  scarcely  one  was  molested.  It  is  morally 
certain  that  among  the  mixed  motives  of  the  excited  masses,  the  di- 
version of  the  carrying  trade  from  native  junks  to  foreign  steamers 
was  at  the  bottom  of  the  movement.  On  the  upper  Yang-tse  where 
two  of  the  riots  occurred,  so  strong  was  the  opposition  to  steamers 
ascending  the  rapids,  that  the  British  minister  felt  constrained  to 
waive  the  exercise  of  that  right.  No  special  effort  was  made  to  keep 
missionaries  out  of  Chung-king,  but  the  Mandarins  moved  heaven 
and  earth  to  prevent  the  coming  of  the  steamer  Ku-ling."  '  At 
Wu-hu,  the  British  Consulate  and  the  Imperial  Customs  House  were 

The  latest  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  results  may  prove,  the  most  satisfactory 
treaty  agreement  with  China  on  the  subject  of  Christianity  and  the  Christian  sub- 
jects of  China,  is  Article  XIV  of  the  Commercial  Treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  China,  proclaimed  on  January  13,  1904  : 

"  The  principles  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  professed  by  the  Protestant  and 
Roman  Catholic  Churches,  are  recognized  as  teaching  men  to  do  good  and  to  do  to 
others  as  they  would  have  others  do  to  them.  These  who  quietly  profess  and  teach 
these  doctrines  shall  not  be  harassed  or  persecuted  on  account  of  their  faith. 
Any  person,  whether  citizen  of  the  United  States  or  Chinese  convert,  who,  ac- 
cording to  these  tenets,  peaceably  teaches  and  practices  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity shall  in  no  case  be  interfered  with  or  molested  therefor.  No  restrictions 
shall  be  placed  on  Chinese  joining  Christian  churches.  Converts  and  non- 
converts,  being  Chinese  subjects,  shall  alike  conform  to  the  laws  of  China;  and 
shall  pay  due  respect  to  those  in  authority,  living  together  in  peace  and  amity ; 
and  the  fact  of  being  converts  shall  not  protect  them  from  the  consequences  of 
any  offence  they  may  have  committed  before  or  may  commit  after  their  admission 
into  the  Church,  or  exempt  them  from  paying  legal  taxes  levied  on  Chinese  sub- 
jects generally,  except  taxes  levied  and  contributions  for  the  support  of  religious 
customs  and  practices  contrary  to  their  faith.  Missionaries  shall  not  interfere 
with  the  exercise  by  the  native  authorities  of  their  jurisdiction  over  Chinese  sub- 
jects ;  nor  shall  the  native  authorities  make  any  distinction  between  converts  and 
non-converts,  but  shall  administer  the  laws  without  partiality  so  that  both  classes 
can  live  together  in  peace. 

"  Missionary  societies  of  the  United  States  shall  be  permitted  to  rent  and  to 
lease  in  perpetuity,  as  the  property  of  such  societies,  buildings  or  lands  in  all 
parts  of  the  Empire  for  missionary  purposes  and,  after  the  title  deeds  have  been 
found  in  order  and  duly  stamped  by  the  local  authorities,  to  erect  such  suitable 
buildings  as  may  be  required  for  carrying  on  their  good  work." 

1 A  Cycle  of  Cathay,  p.  446. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  557 

destroyed,  as  well  as  the  Catholic  Mission.1  The  natural  result 
of  missionary  work  is  that  it  should  win  confidence  and  esteem. 
That  the  most  sincere  and  unselfish  men  in  the  country  should  be 
the  most  disliked  would  be  inconceivable.  That  they  should  be  in 
their  capacity  as  religious  teachers  respected,  especially  in  China,  is 
what  we  would  unavoidably  expect.  And  "  any  one  who  has  taken  the 
trouble  to  watch  their  doings  and  observe  their  lives,"  says  the  editor 
of  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  "  must  admit  that  they  are  good  men,  that 
their  influence  is  thoroughly  wholesome,  and  that  they  set  an  example 
which  greatly  lessens  the  reproach  attaching  to  foreign  communities  in 
general."  '  "  Hostility  to  foreigners  prevails,"  says  an  editorial  in  an 
American  paper,  which  has  as  often  been  unfair  to  the  missionaries  as 
the  Japan  Mall  has  been  uniformly  fair,  "  that  has  been  the  product  of" 
a  bloody  evolution,  and  is  so  deeply  ingrained  in  humanity  as  to  affect 
the  legislation  and  the  customs  of  the  most  advanced  nations.  But 
we  have  yet  to  learn  of  any  tribe  or  race  where  Christian  missionaries 
have  not  won  appreciation,  honour,  and  affection,  so  soon  as  they 
had  opportunity  to  reveal  their  purposes."  3 

If  then  the  Boxer  Uprising  was  an  outbreak  of  patriotic  feeling 
springing  from  general  and  long  enduring  antipathy  to  Western  na- 
tions and  Western  influence,  and  not  arising  from  special  hatred  of 
the  missionary  enterprise,  what,  it  may  be  asked,  were  the  causes  of 
the  intense  feelings  which  expressed  themselves  in  this  terrible  way  ? 
They  are  inextricably  intertwined  with  the  whole  course  of  China's 
relations  to  the  West,  and  they  are  rooted  in  the  character  and  cus- 
toms,-in  the  vices  and  some  of  the  virtues  alike  of  the  Chinese  and 
of  ourselves.*  We  have  felt  at  last  the  fierce  heat  of  the  friction  of 
two  civilizations 5  with  their  defects  and  their  excellencies  forced  into 

1  Ball,  Things  Chinese,  p.  329. 

2  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  July  14,  1900. 

3  New  York  Evening  Post,  April  30,  1 900. 

4  See  Reid,  The  Sources  of  the  Anti-Foreign  Disturbances  in  China,  Edition  of 
1903. 

6 "  We  are  not  to  be  judged  by  the  acts  of  our  mobs,  nor  even,  I  may  add,  by 
those  of  our  Government,  for  the  Government  in  China  does  not  represent  the 
nation.  Yet  even  those  acts  (strongly  as  they  are  condemned  by  all  educated 
Chinamen)  deserve,  I  venture  to  think,  on  the  part  of  Europeans,  a  considera- 
tion more  grave,  and  a  less  intemperate  reprobation,  than  they  have  hitherto  re- 
ceived among  you.  For  they  are  expressions  of  a  feeling  which  is,  and  must  al- 
ways be,  the  most  potent  factor  in  our  relations  with  the  West — our  profound 
mistrust  and  dislike  of  your  civilization,     .     ,     , 


558  Missions  and  Modern  History 

collision  under  circumstances  which  precluded  or  discouraged  mutual 
understanding  and  sympathy  and  forbearance. 

The  main  cause  of  anti-foreign  feeling  in  China  is  the  disposition 
of  the  Chinese.  For  centuries  their  geographical  isolation  and  their 
peculiar  system  of  education,  combined  with  the  natural  character- 
istics of  the  race,  have  made  of  the  Chinese  a  nation  sui  generis. 
Their  position  of  unquestioned  supremacy,  their  sense  of  intellectual 
superiority,  their  power  and  prestige  during  all  these  years  of  their 
intercourse  with  other  peoples  down  to  the  dawn  of  the  last  century, 
supplied  them  with  that  spirit  of  supercilious  contempt  for  others 
and  of  impenetrably  dense  bigotry  and  racial  pride,  which  were 
above  all  other  qualities  adapted  to  fill  their  intercourse  with  Western 
peoples  with  friction  and  misunderstanding.  It  is  customary  to  at- 
tribute this  anti-foreign  feeling  of  China  to  the  Manchu  dynasty, 
which  was  itself  a  foreign  dynasty,  and  sought  to  protect  itself  from 
other  foreigners  by  closing  the  ports  of  China  against  them.  "Be- 
fore the  advent  of  the  Manchus,"  says  Colquhoun,  "  China  main- 
tained constant  relations  with  the  countries  of  Asia ;  traders  from 
Arabia,  Persia,  and  India  trafficked  in  Chinese  ports  and  passed  into 
the  interior.  The  tablet  of  Si-ngan  Fu  shows  that  missionaries  from 
the  West  were  propagating  the  Christian  religion  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury ;  in  the  thirteenth,  Marco  Polo  was  not  only  cordially  received, 
but  held  office  in  the  Empire,  and  at  that  time  the  Christian  religious 
ceremonies  were  tolerated  in  Peking,  where  there  was  an  archbishop. 
To  the  close  of  the  last  Chinese  dynasty  (1644),  the  Jesuit  mission- 
aries were  well  received  and  treated  at  the  capital ;  and  as  Hue  re- 
marks, the  first  Tartar  Emperors  merely  tolerated  what  they  found 
existing.  This  would  seem  to  show  conclusively  that  the  Chinese 
did  not  formerly  have  the  aversion  to  foreigners  which  is  usually 
assumed."1  Too  much  emphasis  can  be  laid  on  this  view.  The 
spirit  of  the  reigning  dynasty  has  had  a  great  share  in  strengthening 
Chinese  narrowness,  but  the  Confucian  system  has  been  as  powerful 

"  We  would  not  if  we  could  rival  you  in  your  wealth,  your  sciences,  and  your 
arts,  if  we  must  do  so  at  the  cost  of  imitating  your  institutions. 

"  And  while  we  recognize  the  greatness  of  your  practical  and  scientific 
achievements,  yet  we  find  it  impossible  unreservedly  to  admire  a  civilization 
which  has  produced  manners  so  coarse,  morals  so  low,  and  an  appearance  so  un- 
lovely as  those  with  which  we  are  constantly  confronted  in  your  great  cities  " 
{Letters  front  a  Chinese  Official,  pp.  4,  5,  8,  10). 

1  China  in  Transformation,  pp.  34k 


The  Boxer  Uprising  559 

an  agency.  It  has  settled  the  people  in  ways  from  which  departure 
is  treason  and  infamy.  One  reason  why  foreigners  were  tolerated  in 
the  past  was  that  they  came  to  China  on  China's  terms,  but  so  soon 
as  foreigners  came  who  would  not  do  this,  who  would  represent  a 
civilization  stronger  than  China's,  and  that  would  not  succumb  to 
China's,  it  was  certain  that  there  would  be  trouble.  But  whatever 
the  past  causes  of  the  popular  feeling  may  have  been,  it  is  certain 
that  the  spirit  of  the  Chinese  people  in  their  relation  to  foreigners 
during  the  present  century  has  been  a  spirit  of  proud  exclusiveness, 
jealous  resentment,  suspicion,  misconception  and  disaffection,  and 
overweening  arrogance.1  To  all  this  should  be  added  the  stubborn 
conservatism  of  the  people,  "stuck  in  the  mud  of  antiquity,"  as 
Viceroy  Chang  Chih-tung  says,3  and  again  he  adds,  "of  all  coun- 
tries China  alone  has  for  these  fifty  years  proved  herself  almost  irre- 
claimably  stupid   and   not   awake."3     Yet  even  Chang  Chih-tung 

1  Reid,  Sources  of  the  Anti-Foreign  Disturbances  in  China,  Ch.  III. 

8  China's  Only  Hope,  p.  126. 

3  Ibid,  p.  52. 

In  The  Japan  Mail  for  February  22,  1902,  in  "  Latter  Day  Notes  on  the 
Chinese  Question,"  Kung  Hung-Ming  sets  forth  the  opposite  view  of  the  Literati. 

"  But  it  is  not  our  intention  here  to  write  a  defence  of  the  Literati  in  China. 
They  have,  no  doubt,  their  faults,  one  of  which  is  over-education.  '  When  the 
natural  qualities  of  men,'  says  Confucius,  '  get  the  better  of  the  results  of  educa- 
tion, they  are  rude  men  or  barbarians,  literally,  heathens !  When  the  results  of 
education  get  the  better  of  their  natural  qualities,  they  become  literati.'  We 
must  further  admit  that  the  actual  governing  class  from  all  appearances  at  the 
present  moment  are  in  a  helpless  state  of  demoralization,  the  causes  of  which  it 
would  take  too  long  to  give  an  account  of  here.  We  will  only  remark  that  the 
worst  system  of  the  demoralization  of  the  governing  class  in  China  was  the  re- 
cent attempt  at  so-called  reforms  in  Peking.  It  showed  the  utter  helplessness — 
and  it  is  perhaps  but  just  to  call  it  the  helplessness  of  despair — of  the  Literati  in 
China,  that  a  few  of  the  scum  of  the  educated  class  were  allowed  for  a  few 
months  to  play  tricks  with  their  national  institutions  in  favour  of  imperfectly  un- 
derstood revolutionary  theories  which  they  had  picked  up  from  foreign  mission- 
aries and  the  Shanghai  newspapers !  But  notwithstanding  all  their  faults  it  is 
but  just  to  the  governing  class  even  of  the  present  day  to  say  that  it  is  entirely 
due  to  them  that  whatever  good  government,  or  any  government  at  all  that  is  still 
left  in  China,  is  made  possible.  It  has  been  usual  with  foreign  writers  on  China 
to  praise  up  the  common  people  and  to  abuse  the  governing  class,  forgetting  that 
in  every  country  the  common  people  are  always  as  the  governing  class  mould 
them.  It  is,  however,  difficult  to  convince  foreigners  who  do  not  know  the  his- 
tory of  China  how  much  the  Literati,  men  like  the  late  Marquis  Tseng  Kuo-fan 
and  others  who  during  the  late  Tai-ping  rebellion  rallied  round  Her  Imperial 
Majesty,  the  present  Empress  Dowager — Moriamur  pro  Rege,  Regina, — have 
done  for  the  good  government  of  the  country.  But  educated  and  thinking  Eng- 
lishmen who  read  violent  abuse  of  the  Literati  in  China  in  the  foreign  press, 
should  consider  the  extent  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  keeping  in  mind  the  want 
of  effective  railway  communication  of  modern  Europe  and  the  want  of  police  in 


560  Missions  and  Modern   History- 

goes  on  to  denounce  those  who  "are  willing  to  cast  off  their  own 
friends  and  associates  to  affiliate  with  foreigners  and  adopt  foreign 
ways.  .  .  .  Good  patriots  consider  such  men  rebellious.  Intel- 
ligent men  regard  them  as  fools." 

Ignorant,  arrogant,  suspicious  as  the  Chinese  people  are,  the  chief 
opposition  to  foreigners  does  not  come  from  them.  It  is  the  practi- 
cally unanimous  testimony  of  all  who  live  in  China  that,  while  the 
materials  for  riot  and  hostility  are  always  prepared  in  the  minds  of 
the  common  people,  it  is  the  literati,  the  officials  and  even  the  central 
Government  that  are  responsible  for  all  outbreaks.  "At  the  bottom 
of  all  the  risings  against  the  missionaries,"  says  Leroy  Beaulieu,  "  are 
the  mandarins  and  the  literati.  The  great  influence  which  these  men 
exercise  over  the  people  and  their  abhorrence  of  Western  civilization, 
is  the  real  cause  why  no  progress  has  been  made  in  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire." '  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  hostility  of  the  officials 
and  the  educated  class  to  Western  influence.  The  Opium  and  Arrow 
Wars  forced  open  the  country  and  began  to  pour  into  it  a  flood  of 

the  country,  seriously  ask  themselves  how  is  it  possible  that  anything  like  pro- 
tection of  life  and  property  would  be  carried  out  at  all,  if  the  governing  class  of 
the  country  were  as  bad  as  they  have  been  painted. 

"  Foreigners  who  come  to  China  seldom  have  the  chance  of  knowing  the  best 
of  the  Literati  in  China.  Like  the  '  Officer  Korps  '  in  Germany,  the  best  of  the 
aristocracy  of  Great  Britain  and  the  modern  great  literary  men  of  France,  who 
are  the  real  governing  class  of  these  respective  countries, — the  real  Literati  in 
China  are  very  exclusive.  But  Englishmen  who  had  the  opportunity  of  know- 
ing the  first  Chinese  Minister  to  London,  the  late  Kuo  Tung  tao,  will  have  seen 
the  best  type  and  perhaps  the  last  of  the  Great  Literati  of  China.  The  following 
account  given  by  an  observant  English  traveller  of  '  Literati  in  Korea'  with  which 
we  will  conclude  these  remarks,  will  perhaps  serve  to  give  a  sufficiently  adequate 
impression  of  what  the  best  type  of  Chinese  '  Literati '  can  be.  Captain  Basil, 
visiting  Korea  in  15 16,  thus  describes  an  old  petty  Korean  magistrate  : 

"  '  The  politeness  and  ease  with  which  he  accommodated  himself,  were  truly 
admirable  ;  and  when  it  is  considered  that  hitherto  in  all  probability,  he  was 
ignorant  even  of  our  existence,  his  propriety  of  manner  would  seem  to  point  not 
only  to  high  rank  in  society,  but  also  to  a  high  degree  of  civilization  in  that  so- 
ciety not  confirmed  by  other  circumstances.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  incident  is 
curious  as  showing  that  however  different  the  state  of  society  may  be  in  different 
countries,  the  forms  of  politeness  are  much  the  same  in  all.  This  polished  char- 
acter was  very  well  sustained  by  the  chief,  as  he  was  pleased  with  our  attempts 
to  oblige  him  and  whatever  we  seemed  to  care  for,  he  immediately  took  an  in- 
terest in.  lie  was  very  inquisitive  and  was  always  highly  gratified  whenever  he 
discovered  the  use  of  anything  which  had  puzzled  him  at  first.  But  there  was 
no  idle  curiosity,  no  extravagant  outburst  of  admiration,  and  he  certainly  would 
be  considered  a  man  of  good  breeding  and  keen  observation  in  any  part  of  the 
world.'  To  foreigners  who  ask  what  can  the  Chinese,  or  as  it  may  be  called  the 
Confucian  Civilization  produce,  we  answer :     It  is  this." 

1  The  Awakening  of  the  East,  p.  233. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  561 

revolutionizing  forces  creating  a  new  world,  a  world  "in  which  their 
knowledge  is  thrust  aside  as  antiquated  and  worthless,  their  pride 
ridiculed  as  having  no  reasonable  foundation,  their  influence  antago- 
nized, and  their  very  means  of  livelihood  threatened."  '  Their  fight 
against  the  West  is  a  fight  for  life  and  for  the  integrity  of  the  old  China 
of  which  they  were  a  part.  And  as  for  missions,  as  Mr.  Michie 
says,  since  the  lettered  and  official  classes  "must  know  by  instinct 
that  the  success  of  the  propaganda  would  involve  the  solution  of  their 
traditional  tenure  of  influence,  their  implacable  hostility  to  Christi- 
anity may  be  inferred  without  reference  to  its  merits  as  a  religion."  2 
To  their  feelings  of  patriotism  are  added  thus  the  supreme  concerns 
of  personal  interest.  The  mandarins  fear  the  introduction  of  West- 
ern methods  because  they  will  render  their  corrupt  schemes  no 
longer  practicable.  They  dislike  the  missionaries  because  jealous  of  the 
influence  they  are  giving  their  converts  by  education, 3  because  as  a 
special  correspondent  of  the  London  Times  wrote,  "in  glaring  con- 
trast to  every  vice  of  native  rule,  the  foreign  missionary  in  his  daily 
dealings  with  the  people  of  his  district  conveys  a  continuous  object 
lesson  of  justice  and  kindliness,  of  unselfishness  and  integrity."  4 
Any  weapon  seems  justifiable  to  men  fighting  as  the  mandarins  are 
for  their  very  life,  and  they  do  not  hesitate  to  spread  the  vilest  slan- 
ders against  missionaries  and  all  foreigners  in  their  zeal  to  foster 
hatred  of  the  West  among  the  people.5  Doubtless  many  of  them 
believe  these  slanders  themselves,  so  dense  is  their  ignorance.  Their 
conservatism  and  their  intellectual  narrowness  feed  each  the  other. 
"The  Chinese  officials  and  people,"  says  Chang  Chih-tung,  "are 
obstructive  as  well  as  stupid.  They  understand  nothing  about  the 
affairs  of  the  world  at  the  present  time.  .  .  .  They  perceive  no 
danger  nor  recognize  the  desperate  urgency  of  the  case.  Inured  to 
no  hardship,  and  holding  merely  a  perfunctory  office,  the  mandarins 
consider  the  following  of  others'  examples  a  shameful  procedure  and 
look  upon  the  slightest  movement  towards  change  with  consternation. 
.     .     .     Among  our  officials  there  is  not  one  man  of  discernment."  6 

1  Holcombe,  The  Real  Chinese  Problem,  p.  87. 

2  China  ami  Christianity,  p.  36. 

3  Gardner,  T/ie  Missionary  Question  in  China,  pp.  I2f. 

4  Quoted  in  Indian  Standard,  December,  1895. 

5  Douglas,  Society  in  China,  pp.  283,  285. 

6  China's  Only  Hope,  pp.  55,  95,  96. 


562  Missions  and  Modern   History 

And  one  of  the  Emperor's  Reform  Edicts  declared,  "  China's  weak- 
ness really  lies  in  her  lazy  officials  and  the  deep-rootedness  of  all 
ancient  vices."1 

But  it  is  not  local  gentry  and  officials  only  who  are  to  blame  for 
bitter  animosity  towards  all  from  without.  They  understand  that  in 
this  they  are  but  carrying  out  the  will  of  the  central  Government, 
which  has  always  detested  foreigners  and  granted  each  privilege  with 
reluctance  and  under  constraint.  "  As  a  matter  of  fact,"  writes  Mr. 
Michie,  "all  the  state  papers  and  other  publications  of  Chinese, 
when  not  dictated  by  foreigners  under  threats  or  written  to  serve  a 
special  need,  are  as  the  unloading  of  stores  of  burning  hatred  from 
the  breasts  of  their  authors."  *  The  Chinese  Government  has  never 
sincerely  accepted  the  consequences  of  her  struggles  against  the  West. 
Each  one  has  only  made  her  more  bitter  and  resisting.  Her  deliber- 
ate policy  has  been  to  "  nourish  revenge  against  foreigners  for  forcing 
her  to  open  her  doors,  to  persist  in  keeping  the  people  in  complete 
ignorance  of  the  outside  world,  and  to  refuse  to  adopt  modern  meth- 
ods." After  the  murder  of  Mr.  Margary  in  Yun-nan  Sir  Thomas 
Wade  reported  to  the  British  Government  that  "the  anti-foreign 
feeling  in  the  country  was  on  the  part  of  a  large  majority  of  the  edu- 
cated class  as  violent  as  ever  it  had  been,  and  that  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  central  Government  were  in  a  great  degree  anti-foreign, 
and  as  bigoted  opponents  to  all  foreign  intercourse  as  any  people  in 
the  Empire."  3  There  have  been,  of  course,  some  movements  of  life 
and  good  purpose,  but  less  than  ten  years  ago  the  foreign  ministers  in 
Peking  declared  in  conclave  that  "  no  faith  could  be  put  in  the  assur- 
ances of  the  Chinese  Government." 

But  the  burden  of  responsibility  for  ill  feeling  between  China  and 
the  West  and  the  sense  of  wrong  and  hatred  in  Chinese  hearts  cannot 
be  laid  wholly  upon  the  pride  and  ignorance  of  the  Chinese  or  the 
corruptness  and  stupid  conservatism  of  the  Government.  The  course 
of  Western  Governments  for  one  hundred  years  has  been  such  as  to 
arouse  and  maintain  the  most  malignant  hatred.  The  first  repre- 
sentatives of  the  West  were  traders  who  were  prepared  to  do  anything 
to  procure  and  retain  trade.     The  first  war  was  fought  on  what  the 

1  Translation  of  Peking  Gazette,  1S9S,  p.  53. 

*  Missionaries  in  China,  p.  10. 

J  Douglas,  Society  in  China,  p,  274. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  563 

Chinese  believed  to  be  unjust  grounds  and  in  defence  of  a  traffic 
which  the  Chinese  abhorred.1  To  this  day,  opium  is  charged  to 
foreign  nations  by  all  thoughtful  Chinese  as  one  count  in  the  terrible 
indictment  they  draw  against  the  West.  "  Assuredly  it  is  not  foreign 
intercourse  that  is  ruining  China,  but  this  dreadful  poison.  Oh,  the 
grief  and  desolation  it  has  wrought  to  our  people  !  "  exclaims  Chang 
Chih-tung.  "A  hundred  years  ago  the  curse  came  upon  us  more 
blasting  and  deadly  in  its  effects  than  the  Great  Flood  or  the  scourge 
of  the  Fierce  Beasts.  .  .  .  Millions  upon  millions  have  been 
struck  down  by  the  plague.  To-day  it  is  running  like  wild-fire.  In 
its  swift,  deadly  course,  it  is  spreading  devastation  everywhere, 
weakening  the  minds  and  eating  away  the  strength  and  wealth  of  its 
victims."2  It  is  the  fashion  of  some  to  pooh-pooh  the  opium  trade, 
to  say  that  the  Chinese  connived  at  it,  and  now  raise  their  own  opium, 
and  would  use  the  drug  even  if  Great  Britain  ceased  to  import  it. 
All  that  is  beside  the  mark.  The  fact  is  that  the  Chinese  people 
despise  the  curse  and  hate  England  with  an  unrelenting  hate  for  hav- 
ing forced  it  upon  them.     And  England  did  force  it.     Protest  as  she 

1  Mr.  Gladstone  frankly  expressed  his  mind  as  to  the  war  in  a  speech  at  the 
time  in  the  House  of  Commons: 

"  I  do  not  know  how  it  can  be  urged  as  a  crime  against  the  Chinese  that  they 
refused  provisions  to  those  who  refused  obedience  to  their  laws  whilst  residing 
within  their  territory.  I  am  not  competent  to  judge  how  long  this  war  may  last, 
nor  how  protracted  may  be  its  operations,  but  this  I  can  say,  that  a  war  more 
unjust  in  its  origin,  a  war  more  calculated  in  its  progress  to  cover  this  country 
with  disgrace,  I  do  not  know  and  I  have  not  read  of.  Mr.  Macaulay  spoke  last 
night  in  eloquent  terms  of  the  British  flag  waving  in  glory  at  Canton,  and  of  the 
animating  effect  produced  upon  the  minds  of  our  sailors  by  the  knowledge  that 
in  no  country  under  heaven  was  it  permitted  to  be  insulted.  But  how  comes  it 
to  pass  that  the  sight  of  that  flag  always  raises  the  spirits  of  Englishmen  ?  It  is 
because  it  has  always  been  associated  with  the  cause  of  justice,  with  opposition  to 
oppression,  with  respect  for  national  rights,  with  honourable  commercial  enter- 
prise, but  now  under  the  auspices  of  the  noble  lord  (Palmerston)  that  flag  is 
hoisted  to  protect  an  infamous  contraband  traffic,  and  if  it  were  never  to  be 
hoisted  except  as  it  is  now  hoisted  on  the  coast  of  China,  we  should  recoil  from 
its  sight  with  horror,  and  should  never  again  feel  our  hearts  thrill,  as  they  now 
thrill,  with  emotion  when  it  floats  magnificently  and  in  pride  upon  the  breeze. 
Although  the  Chinese  were  undoubtedly  guilty  of  much  absurd  phrase- 
ology, of  no  little  ostentatious  pride,  and  of  some  excess,  justice  in  my  opinion  is 
with  them,  and  whilst  they  the  pagans  and  semi-civilized  barbarians  have  it,  we 
the  enlightened  and  civilized  Christians  are  pursuing  objects  at  variance  both 
with  justice  and  religion  "  (Morley,  Life  of  Gladstone,  Vol.  I,  p.  226). 

In  his  Journal,  May  14,  1840,  Mr.  Gladstone  writes: 

"  I  am  in  dread  of  the  judgment  of  God  upon  England  for  our  national  in- 
iquity towards  China  "  {/bid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  227). 

*  China's  Only  Hope,  p.  73. 


564  Missions  and  Modern  History 

may,  the  calm  judgment  of  history  persists  in  calling  the  war  of 
1842-3  the  Opium  War,  and  charging  the  odium  of  it  upon  the 
British  Government.  And  wherever  opium  goes  in  China,  it  is  a 
preacher  of  an ti- foreign  hate.  "In  this  vicinity,"  wrote  Williams 
from  Canton  in  1833,  "we  find  that  in  villages  where  opium  smokers 
most  abound,  there  is  the  worst  feeling  against  foreigners."  '  Legge 
tells  of  a  conversation  in  1879  with  Kuo  Sung-tao,  Chinese  ambassa- 
dor in  London,  when  the  latter  asked  him  which  country  he  deemed 
better,  China  or  England.  "'You  know,'  he  said  to  me,  'both 
England  and  China.  Which  country  do  you  say  is  the  better  of  the 
two?'  I  replied  'England.'  He  was  disappointed,  and  added,  'I 
mean  looking  at  them  from  the  moral  standpoint ; — looked  at  from 
the  standpoint  of  benevolence,  righteousness  and  propriety,  which 
country  do  you  say  is  the  better?'  After  some  demur  and  fencing, 
I  replied  again,  '  England.'  I  never  saw  a  man  more  surprised.  He 
pushed  his  chair  back,  got  on  his  feet,  took  a  turn  across  the  room, 
and  cried  out,  'You  say  that,  looked  at  from  the  moral  standpoint, 
England  is  better  than  China  !  Then  how  is  it  that  England  insists 
on  our  taking  her  opium  ?  '  "  2 

When  recently  the  Opinions  of  One  Hundred  Physicians  on  the 
Use  of  Opium  was  translated,  and  some  silk  merchants  of  Nan-tsin 
proposed  to  scatter  tens  of  thousands  of  copies  through  the  Empire, 
they  prepared  for  it  a  preface  full  of  denunciation  of  England,  and 
described  in  it  "  side  by  side  in  all  their  horrors  the  slave  trade  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  the  opium  traffic  of  the  nineteenth."  3  It  is 
not  the  sort  of  thing  the  West  likes  to  hear — trade  with  it  is  a  sacred 
thing  not  to  be  spoken  of  save  with  reverence — but  it  is  in  a  measure 
true  that  "while  other  causes  have  cooperated  to  generate  and  sus- 
tain anti-foreign  feeling,  the  largest  single  cause,  the  most  important 
factor  is  the  source,  history  and  results  of  opium.  .  .  .  Every 
victim  of  the  drug,  and  he  is  everywhere  to  be  found,  is  a  walking 
advertisement  and  argument  to  the  evil  of  everything  foreign.  .  .  . 
China  is  permitted  to  establish  no  national  protective  tariff,  but  she 
has  a  national  protective  sentiment  of  inveterate  hostility  to  any 
product,  be  it  a  man,  a  thing,  or  an  idea  coming  from  the  Western 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  S.   Wells   Williams,  p.  202. 

2  Legge,   The  Religions  of  China,  p.  308. 

3  DuBose,  Are  Missionaries  in  Any  Way  Responsible  for  the  Present  Dis- 
turbances in  China,  p.  8. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  565 

world.  .  .  .  And  the  main  source  and  feeder  of  this  sentiment 
is  to  be  found  in  the  opium  traffic.  The  modern  great  Chinese  wall 
is  mainly  constructed  of  chests  of  opium."  ' 

The  second  Chinese  war,  called  the  Arrow  War,  only  intensified 
Chinese  hatred  and  sense  of  infamous  wrong.  I  am  not  excusing 
China  for  her  stupidity,  her  falsehood,  her  idiotic  and  drivelling  di- 
plomacy, her  dogged  resistance  to  progress,  but  am  merely  explain- 
ing how  it  is  that  she  hates  the  West  as  she  does.  The  Arrow  War 
in  its  origin,  as  based  on  flimsy  pretext  in  the  Chinese  view,  in  its 
course  and  in  its  result  accompanied  by  wanton  and  malicious  de- 
struction of  the  finest  treasures  of  the  Chinese  Government,  and  by 
the  most  humiliating  conditions,  filled  the  Chinese  officials  with 
almost  irrepressible  rage,  which  the  tone  of  all  Western  intercourse 
since  has  only  heightened.  Speaking  of  the  negotiations  with  the 
Chinese  during  the  war,  Wells  Williams  says:  "They  have  been 
badgered  and  insulted  by  the  English,  forced  to  yield  the  privileges 
of  their  treaties  by  threats  of  war  and  sackage,  and  made  to  feel  in 
every  way  their  weakness  and  poverty.  ...  I  shall  not  soon 
lose  my  disgust  for  the  overbearing  conduct  of  Lord  Elgin  and  his 
entire  set."  *  Of  course  this  was  an  immense  advance  over  the  black- 
guardism of  the  earlier  relations  of  Europe  with  China,  but  the  differ- 
ence was  in  form  rather  than  in  spirit.  The  "  rapine,  murder  and 
constant  appeal  to  force,"  which,  says  Gorst,  "  chiefly  characterized 
the  commencement  of  Europe's  commercial  intercourse  with  China  " 
have  characterized  its  continuance.  The  West  has  never  hesitated 
to  trample  on  the  rights  of  China  and  the  Chinese.  What  justifica- 
tion the  West  had  or  thought  it  had  for  its  course  is  not  the  question. 
The  significant  thing  is  that  if  China  had  not  hated  us  before,  we 
have  given  her  sufficient  reason  for  doing  so.3 

It  is  not  by  war  alone  that  we  have  angered  China.  We  have 
again  and  again  dealt  with  her  in  bad  faith — in  the  matter  of  the 
Shanghai-Wu-sung  Road  for  which  permission  was  issued  as  a  horse 
railroad,  but  which  was  at  once  built  for  steam  engines,  and  so  run 
until  the  Chinese  paid  an  exorbitant  price  for  it  and  destroyed  it, — 

1  Holcombe,  The  Real  Chinese  Question,  pp.  2S6-2S8. 

2  Life  and  Letters  of  S.   Wells  Williams,  p.  280. 

3  "  To  a  Chinaman  who  reviews  the  history  of  the  relations  with  you  during 
the  past  sixty  years  and  more  must  you  not  naturally  appear  to  be  little  better 
than  robbers  and  pirates  "  (Letters  from  a  Chinese  Official,  pp.  69,  70). 


^66  Missions  and  Modern  History 

in  deliberate  evasion  of  law  through  abuses  of  the  extra-territorial 
system  by  which  foreign  criminals  have  again  and  again  gone  scot 
free,1  in  violating  her  national  integrity  through  customs  conditions, 
in  breaking  treaty  stipulations,  in  demanding  frequent  indemnities 
which  a  capable,  civilized  state  would  have  resisted  with  her  last  re- 
source.8 

And  the  opium  trade  has  not  been  the  only  branch  of  commerce 
that  has  led  to  anti-foreign  hate.  There  is  something  wonderful 
about  our  illusions  regarding  trade.  There  are  multitudes  who  seem 
to  think  that  for  trade  Governments  exist  and  peoples  live,  and  that 
while  heathen  peoples  naturally  resent  the  coming  of  the  missionaries, 
they  eagerly  welcome  the  advent  of  the  merchant  and  his  trade.  This 
is  a  pure  hallucination, — however  common  with  newspaper  writers  : — 
"  With  the  building  of  railroads,  the  development  of  mines,  the 
opening  of  inland  traffic,  the  removal  of  restrictions  upon  internal 
trade  and  residence  of  foreign  merchants,  some  opportunity  will  be 
afforded  to  live  down  the  prejudice  of  the  natives  as  it  has  been  over- 
come in  treaty  ports.  It  is  not  my  observation  that  the  presence  of 
the  foreign  merchant  in  any  part  of  China  is  an  element  of  discord."  3 
And  again,  "  It  should  be  the  policy  of  the  missionary  to  follow  Close 
upon  the  trail  of  this  class  of  forerunner  of  civilization,  which  has, 
never  advanced  beyond  China's  need  for  it.  In  other  words,  the 
missionary  should  not  be  the  forerunner,  but  the  follower.  Let  the 
merchant  first  prepare  the  Chinese  mind  for  the  reception  of  innova- 
tions of  a  material  kind,  the  good  of  some  of  which  he  has  already 
actually  experienced,  and  the  innovation  of  religion  will  not  appear  in 
his  sight  so  impossible  and  undesirable  a  thing. ' '  *  These  are 
the  opinions  of  United  States  Consuls  or  ex-consuls.  They 
represent     that     solemn     traditional    judgment,    worse    than    any 

1  Ho] combe,  The  Real  Chinese  Question,  pp.  243ft. 

*  "  Occidentals,  while  loudly  accusing  the  Chinese  of  arrogance,  are  themselves 
constantly  guilty  of  the  arrogance  of  refusing  to  observe  just  rules  and  submit  to 
reasonable  restrictions,  which  the  Chinese  have  the  right,  but  not  the  power  to 
enforce.  Many  of  these  Occidentals  even  labour  under  the  delusion  that  they 
thereby  uphold  the  honour  of  their  respective  countries.  Such  conduct  can  only 
be  stopped  by  plain  exposure,  and  by  the  just  and  strong  condemnation  of  all 
right-minded  men  throughout  the  civilized  West"  (Meadows,  The  Chinese  and 
Their  Rebellions,  pp.  j22f.j. 

3  The  Independent,  October  25,  I9C0,  Art.  "  The  Complexity  of  the  Chinese 
Problem,"  pp.  2550-3. 

4  The  Independent,  August  9, 1900,  Art.  "The  Foreigners  in  China," pp.  I902f. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  567 

missionary  dogma  and  more  arbitrary,  that  the  Chinese  people 
are  eager  for  Western  commerce  and  industrial  innovation. 
It  is  a  profound  mistake.  Every  port  opened  to  trade  in  China 
has  been  forced  open  by  war,  or  by  diplomatic  pressure,  or  in 
consequence  of  some  outrage  as  an  indemnity,  and  no  one  who 
knows  the  ports  will  imagine  that  "the  prejudice  of  the  natives 
has  been  overcome  "  in  them.  As  soon  as  the  news  arrived  in  Sha- 
hsi  that  it  was  to  be  opened  as  a  port,  the  city  was  placarded  with 
anti-foreign  proclamations.  But  there  were  missionaries  already 
there — with  no  anti-foreign  placards  greeting  their  coming  or  attend- 
ing their  stay.  The  fact  is  that  the  Chinese  people  as  a  whole  and 
the  Chinese  Government  do  not  want  foreign  trade.  It  is  an  offence 
to  them  that  it  should  be  thrust  upon  them.  And  they  have  two 
reasons  for  not  wanting  it  that  involve  no  discredit  to  us,  and  one 
that  does.  (1)  In  the  first  place,  they  are  convinced  that  the  bal- 
ance of  trade  will  be  against  them,  and  that  they  will  become  in- 
debted to  Western  nations.1  The  silver  money,  they  believe,  will  go 
out  of  the  country  and  the  whole  internal  fiscal  system  will  be  disar- 
ranged. As  a  Chinese  scholar  said  long  ago:  "Those  who  come 
from  Western  lands  to  trade  with  us,  do  all  that  they  may  get  some 
profit  from  us  and  snatch  from  us  the  means  of  gain."  (2)  In  the 
second  place,  the  introduction  of  trade  overturns  the  Chinese  indus- 
trial system.  Each  invention  or  labour  saving  contrivance  brought 
in,  throws  many  Chinese  out  of  employment,  creating  discontent. 
One  cause  of  the  Tai-ping  Rebellion  is  said  to  have  been  the  di- 
version of  so  much  of  the  silk  and  tea  trade  from  Canton  to  Shang- 
hai, leaving  a  great  deal  of  unrest  and  hosts  of  idle  men  to  express 
it  in  the  south.2  The  riots  on  the  Yang-tse  in  1891,  were  due  not 
so  much  to  the  vile  literature  poured  out  from  Hu-nan  against  Chris- 
tianity as  to  the  destruction  of  the  business  of  the  Chinese  junks  by 

1,1  Left  to  ourselves,  we  should  never  have  sought  intercourse  with  the  West. 
We  have  no  motive  to  do  so ;  for  we  desire  neither  to  proselytize  nor  to  trade. 

"  Economically,  as  well  as  politically,  we  are  sufficient  to  ourselves.  What  we 
consume  we  produce,  and  what  we  produce  we  consume.  We  do  not  require, 
and  we  have  not  sought,  the  products  of  other  nations  ;  and  we  hold  it  no  less 
imprudent  than  unjust  to  make  war  on  strangers  in  order  to  open  their  markets. 
A  society,  we  conceive,  that  is  to  be  politically  stable  must  be  economically  inde- 
pendent ;  and  we  regard  an  extensive  foreign  trade  as  necessarily  a  source  of 
social  demoralization"  (Letters  from  a  Chinese  Official,  pp.  II,  12). 

2Reid,  Sources  of  Anti- Foreign  Feeling  in  China,  pp.  62f. 


568  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  advent  of  steamers  which  absorbed  the  carrying  trade.  And  the 
same  causes  were  operative  in  the  Boxer  Uprising.  The  railroads 
were  sure  to  throw  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men,  carters,  boatmen 
and  others  out  of  employment,  and  some  of  the  firmest  supporters  of 
the  movement  were  from  villages  which  would  be  deprived  of  all 
means  of  livelihood  by  the  progress  of  Western  civilization.  "A 
large  number  of  the  Boxers  around  Peking  consisted  of  boatmen, 
barrowmen  and  country-weavers,  who  believed  that  steam  and 
machinery  robbed  them  of  their  daily  bread, — hence  they  joined  in 
tearing  up  the  railways,  in  cutting  down  the  telegraph  poles,  and  in 
putting  to  death  all  those  who  were  found  wearing  foreign  machine- 
made  clothing."  1  We  ought  surely  to  be  able  to  sympathize  with 
their  alarm,  and  to  appreciate  the  position  of  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment. China  is  an  immense  country,  with  an  intricate  civilization 
so  delicately  adjusted  that  its  people  manage  to  live  under  it,  but  multi- 
tudes of  them  on  the  very  edge.  The  desire  of  the  Government  is  not 
to  produce  labour-saving  devices,  but  to  divide  up  the  labour  among 
more  labourers.  Western  civilization  crashes  against  this  delicate  bal- 
ance of  industrial  organization,  and  shatters  it  in  ruins.     It  means 

1  Thirteenth  Repoi  t  Soeiely  for  the  Distribution  of  Christian  Knowledge,  p. 
28  ;  See  also  article  in  The  Spirit  of  Missions,  September,  1900,  "  Anxious  Days  in 
Hankow  and  Wuchang,"  pp.  587-590.  "  In  Moukden,  when  the  missionaries 
had  fled  and  the  converts  disappeared,  the  Boxers  in  their  thoroughness  sought 
out  all  the  shops  dealing  in  any  kind  of  foreign  ware.  The  few  Christian  mer- 
chants had  been  already  treated  as  foreigners;  but  the  paper  merchants  were 
now  to  be  dealt  with  for  touching  foreign  goods.  Kerosene  is  now  very  largely 
used  in  Moukden,  and  all  over  the  country.  The  former  native  luminants  were 
everywhere  discarded  and  the  bright  foreign  light  reigned  in  their  stead.  The 
shops  selling  kerosene — which  were  usually  large  stores  selling  much  else — were 
visited  by  the  Boxers.  The  kerosene  was  all  confiscated.  Very  heavy  fines 
were  imposed  on  the  merchants — as  heavy  indeed  as  the  extent  of  their  resources 
would  admit.  The  people  were  everywhere  forbidden  to  use  the  article  pro- 
duced by  the  foreigner.  The  people  here  are  very  partial  to  a  bright  brass  button 
made  in  Birmingham  and  sold  by  the  hundred  thousand,  instead  of  the  native 
button  of  coiled  tape.  The  brass  buttons  are  of  numerous  and  excellent  designs 
to  catch  the  native  eye.  Every  wearer  of  these  buttons  was  stopped  on  the  street. 
The  obnoxious  garment  was  torn  off  and  cast  into  the  fire.  In  a  little  while  no 
brass  button  could  anywhere  be  seen.  Cottons,  both  English  and  American,  find 
a  great  market  in  this  city.  The  best  and  richest  stores  carry  on  the  sale  of 
these  precious  bales.  Every  such  store  was  attacked.  Every  bale  of  foreign  cot- 
ton or  of  foreign  cloth  was  seized  and  thrown  on  the  street,  burnt,  or  taken  away 
by  the  Boxers.  Many  small  junks  laden  with  these  cottons,  were  found  in  the 
river;  their  cargoes  were  all  thrown  into  the  river,  burnt  or  seized  for  the  pri- 
vate use  of  the  Boxers.  Natives  did  not  dare  to  wear  foreign  cotton  "  (Ross, 
The  Boxers  in  Manchuria,  p.  3). 


The  Boxer  Uprising  569 

money  to  us.  We  do  not  pause  to  think  of  the  misery  and  suffering 
it  means  to  millions  in  China,  who  look  upon  us  not  as  benefactors 
but  as  the  most  hateful  enemies.1  (3)  And  in  the  third  place,  with- 
many  noble  exceptions,  the  class  of  men  who  are  introducing  these 
changes  and  who  are  thus  demolishing  the  fabric  of  China's  economic 
society,  are  not  qualified  to  pacify  and  conciliate  the  people.  They 
do  not  learn  the  language.  They  do  not  mingle  with  the  people. 
And  there  is  among  them  a  considerable  minority  whose  lives  "are 
an  outrage  on  the  best  ideas  of  the  natives  and  a  libel  on  Western 
civilization,"  who  "do  more  to  prepare  the  way  for  corrupt  officials, 
bent  on  stirring  up  the  ignorant  people  of  China,  than  all  the  mis- 
takes of  all  the  missionaries  put  together."  2  The  presence  in  China 
of  boorish,  hot-tempered,  licentious  men  who  kick  Chinese  servants 
and  live  with  Chinese  mistresses  is  glossed  over  by  apologists  for  West- 
ern trade  in  China,  but  it  is  not  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  the  Chinese. 
"Is  it  likely  to  make  the  people  of  China  either  respect  or  like  us," 
writes  a  correspondent  of  the  Shanghai  Mercury,  from  Chung-king 
in  Western  China,  "to  introduce  houses  of  ill-fame  peopled  from 
America  right  in  the  centre  of  China  at  Hankow,  and  in  the  far 
north  at  Tientsin,  besides  having  turned  what  used  to  be  called  the 
model  settlement  into  a  perfect  hotbed  of  vice,  so  that  Chinese 
merchants  up  country,  even  when  they  see  their  way  to  making  great 
profits,  object  to  sending  their  sons  there  until  they  are  of  an  age  to 
have  their  principles  established."  3  There  is  nothing  fanciful  or  im- 
aginary in  this.  The  careless  conduct  of  the  trading  class  has  again 
and  again  brought  on  riots  and  fed  the  anti-foreign  feeling  of  the 
Chinese.4 

1 "  The  introduction  of  new  methods  means,  at  any  rate  for  the  moment,  so 
much  dislocation  of  labour,  so  much  poverty,  suffering,  and  starvation.  Of  this 
your  own  industrial  history  gives  abundant  proof. 

"  I,  at  least,  cannot  contemplate  without  the  gravest  apprehension  the  disorders 
which  must  inevitably  ensue  among  our  population  of  four  hundred  millions  upon 
the  introduction,  on  a  large  scale,  of  Western  methods  of  industry.  You  will  say 
that  the  disorder  is  temporary  ;  to  me  it  appears,  in  the  West,  to  be  chronic  " 
{Letters  from  a  Chinese  Official,  pp.  34,  35). 

2  New  York  Sun,  September  4,  1900,  Editorial,  "  A  Good  and  True  Word  for  the 
Missionaries  in  China." 

3  Quoted  in  Japan   Weekly  Mail,  August  25,  1900. 

4 'See  Life  and  Letters  of  S.  Wells  Williams,^.  H2f;  Holcombe,  The  Real 
Chinese  Problem,  pp.  245k  ;  Martin,  A  Cycle  of  Cathay,  p.  447  ;  Reid,  Sources 
of  Anti-Foreign  Feeling-  in  China,  p.  39 ;  Church  Missionary  Intelligencer, 
October,  1900,  pp.  761  f. 


^yo  Missions  and  Modern  History 

It  must  in  candour  be  added  now  that  the  missionary  enterprise 
must  be  included  in  any  statement  of  the  causes  of  anti-foreign  feel- 
ing. It  has  caused  such  feeling  through  the  mistakes  of  individuals 
and  through  the  mistaken  policies  of  some  missions,  and  through  the 
confusion  of  the  enterprise  as  a  whole  in  the  Chinese  mind  with  the 
general  political  aggression  of  the  West. 

(i)  Individuals  are  sure  to  be  found  in  so  large  a  company  as  the 
2,950'  Protestant  and  759  Catholic  missionaries  in  China  who  will 
err  in  judgment  and  some  in  spirit,  and  create  ill-will.  These 
are  a  comparatively  small  proportion,  however.  Not  all  the  mis- 
sionaries are  great  men  and  women,  but  practically  all  are  in 
China  because  of  a  disinterested  love  for  the  Chinese ;  and  after  a 
reasonably  thorough  examination  as  to  their  good  sense  and  general 
capacity  and  Christian  spirit.  Any  blunders  of  exceptional  individ- 
uals are  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  pacificatory  influence  of 
the  missionaries  as  a  whole.  "  Throughout  the  country  '  where  the 
foreigner  is  otherwise  unknown,'  "  says  an  editorial  in  the  New  York 
Sun  (September  4,  1900)  already  quoted  "he  is  first  introduced  by 
the  person  of  a  missionary  who  lives  quietly  a  moral  life,  so  that  all 
his  immediate  neighbours  on  close  acquaintance  acquire  a  favourable 
knowledge  of  an  individual  foreigner,  and  from  that  particular 
knowledge,  argue  favourably  in  general  of  the  foreigners." 

(2)  The  mistaken  policies  charged  against  some  missionaries,  and 
by  some  against  the  entire  missionary  body  are  chiefly  two,  (a)  an 
alienating  requirement  of  converts  to  break  too  radically  with  their 
old  life,  especially  in  the  matter  of  ancestor  worship,  and  local  tax- 
ation for  idolatrous  purposes,  and  (/>)  a  protection  of  converts  in  the 
matter  of  general  taxation  and  litigation.2 

(3)  The  whole  missionary  movement  is  declared  to  have  stood  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Chinese  as  the  forerunner  of  Western  political  aggres- 
sion. The  appeals  from  missionaries  to  their  consuls  and  ministers 
and  the  use  made  by  European  Governments  of  outrages  upon  mission- 
aries to  extort  fresh  concessions  confirmed  this  view.3  "  Some  of  the 
mandarins,"  says  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Ning-po,  "  really  are  sin- 
cere in  their  suspicions  of  the  motives  that  bring  the  missionaries  to 

1  1,233  of  these  men,  and  1,727  women. 

*  The   Cosmopolitan,  December,  1900,  Art.  by  Sir  Robert  Hart,  "The  Peking 
Legations,"  p.  122. 
sReinsch,  World  Politics,  pp.  146k 


The  Boxer  Uprising  571 

China.  Being  Pagans,  they  cannot  comprehend  that  these  priests 
come  solely  to  save  souls  without  any  motive  of  self-interest.  Again, 
the  Catholic  missions  being  under  the  protection  of  the  French  min- 
ister, the  mandarins  imagine  that  the  missionaries  are  political  agents 
for  the  subversion  of  China.  Therefore  they  entertain  a  blind  hatred 
of  the  Europeans,  who  by  their  presence  desecrate  the  sacred  soil  of 
China,  and  by  their  teaching  trouble  the  shade  of  Confucius,  preach- 
ing a  doctrine  he  did  not  preach  and  a  religion  he  did  not  know."  1 

(4 )  It  is  further  said  that  the  missionary  enterprise  creates  ill-feeling 
by  attacking  the  cherished  opinions  and  customs  of  the  Chinese,  and 
that  this  is  not  the  error  of  individuals  or  individual  missions,  but 
the  genius  of  the  movement,  that  it  carries  with  it  the  odium  of 
illegitimacy,  its  presence  in  the  interior  of  China  being  illegal,  that  it 
is  detested  by  the  officials,  and  is  in  reality  simply  an  organized  revo 
lution  aimed  at  the  integrity  of  Chinese  institutions  under  the 
cowardly  protection  of  extra-territorial  rights,  that  in  essence  the 
Boxer  Movement  was  a  gigantic  and  infuriated  attempt  to  shake  off 
the  irritating  and  detested  missionary,  and  that  in  its  blind  fury  it 
struck  at  merchant  and  minister  also. 

Now  enough  has  been  said  already  to  indicate  that  the  anti- 
foreign  feeling  of  the  Chinese  has  deeper  roots  than  antagonism 
to  the  missionaries,  although  it  is  acknowledged  that  some  of 
the  hostility  of  the  people  is  due  to  it,  and  I  shall  pause  here 
only  to  suggest  several  points.  (1)  The  Chinese  officials  who  are 
the  responsible  persons  in  all  anti-foreign  movements  have  not 
the  slightest  religious  zeal  in  the  matter.  When  they  pretend  to 
have  it  it  is  for  the  sake  of  playing  upon  the  emotions  of  the 
people.  They  never  charge  the  missionary  with  speaking  against 
Confucius.  The  officials,  as  one  who  has  lived  half  a  century  in 
China  declares,  "  are  not  given  to  religious  sentimentalism  ;  it  would 
surprise  them  very  much  to  have  such  a  character  imputed  to  them. 
.  .  .  At  the  open  ports  he  (the  Confucian  scholar)  does  not 
trouble  his  brain  to  ask  what  men  believe.  Nor  would  it  be  differ- 
ent in  the  interior  if  it  were  not  that  it  is  a  foreigner  that  is  doing  it. 
It   is  the  foreigner  himself  that  lie  wants  to  keep  out."  2     Ever  since 

>  Reynaud,  Another  China,  p.  25. 

'The  Rev.  William  Ashmore,  D.  D„  in  the  Chinese  Recorder,  November  1895, 
article,  "  Is  this  Antagonism  against  the  Missionary  because  he  is  a  Missionary 
or  because  he  is  a  Foreigner  ?  " 


572  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  Chinese  Government  discovered  that  the  presence  of  the  mis- 
sionary in  the  interior  was  being  used  by  the  foreign  Governments  as 
a   ground  for   urging   that    the    right   of   residence   in   the  country 
should  be  given  general  extension  with  the  extra-territorial  privilege 
maintained,  the  conservative  party  in  Peking,  supported  by  the  great 
mass  of  the  officials  throughout  the  empire,  have  been  trying  to  get 
the  missionary  out  of  the  interior.     Their  hostility  has  been  secular, 
however,  and  the  reasons  for  their  desire  to  exclude  him  have  rested 
upon  those  grounds  for  anti-foreign  feeling  which  are  purely  political 
and  commercial.1     (2)  Wherever  the  Chinese  have  looked  beyond 
the  political  aspects  of  the  presence  of  the  missionary  in  the  interior, 
they  have  laid  aside  their  apprehensions.     Mr.  Michie  points  out  that 
their  fears  would   die  if  they  would  or  could  observe  "the  gentler 
fruits  of  Christian  teaching;  "  "  for  they  would  see  in  many  rural  vil- 
lages throughout  the  country,  the  leaven  of  the  new  faith  working  its 
way  in  the  silent  manner  in  which  the  eternal  forces  always  do  work  ; 
and  they  would  see  if  they  had  eyes  for  such  things,  evidences  of 
amelioration  in  the  lives  of  the  people,   cleanliness  and  kindliness 
spreading,    intelligence    awakened,    the   desire   for   knowledge    im- 
planted, reading  taking  the  place  of  gambling  in  the  cottages,  and 
the  conditions  of  existence   sweetened,  brightened  and  elevated  for 
many  a  poor  family."2     Numerous  edicts  might  be  cited  to  show 
that  whenever  the   Chinese  have  looked  into  missionary  work,  or 
where  they  have  observed  it  in  its  own  true  character  and  not  in  its 
apparent  political  implications,  they  have  heartily  commended  it.     It 
is  sufficient  to  quote  simply  from  two  of  the  last  imperial  edicts  deal- 
ing with  the  subject.     In  1891,  the  Tsung-li  Yamen  presented  to  the 
throne  a  memorial  stating  that  "  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
Christian  religion  are  to  educate  mankind  to  lead  a  virtuous  life,"  de- 
claring that  the  readiness  of  the  missionaries  "  to  help  and  to  benefit 
the  people  is  deserving  of  every  acknowledgment  "  and  asking  for  a 
stringent  edict  in  support  of  the  missionaries.     In  reply,  the  edict  of 
June    13,  1891,  was   issued,  declaring    "The  propagation    of  Chris- 
tianity by  foreigners  is   provided   for  by  treaty  and   imperial  decrees 
have  been   issued   from  time  to  time  to  the  provincial  authorities  to 
protect  the  missionaries.     .     .     .     The  doctrine  of  Christianity  has 

1  Williams,  History  of  China,  pp.  432-434. 
s  China  and  Christianity,  p.  40. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  573 

for  its  purpose  the  teaching  of  men  to  do  good."  Yet  again,  in 
1899,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  Boxer  outbreak,  the  Dowager  Empress 
issued  an  edict  in  her  own  name,  in  which  she  spoke  of  "the  false 
sentiment  of  treating  the  missionaries  as  enemies,"  and  added,  "The 
missionaries  of  the  different  nations  come  here  and  preach  to  our 
people  what  is  in  their  books,  and  though  each  has  a  distinct  doc- 
trine, the  common  aim  of  all  is  to  induce  people  to  do  good  and  to 
be  good."  In  an  article  in  which  he  quoted  the  edict  of  1891, 
Colonel  Denby,  formerly  United  States  Minister  at  Peking,  said  : 
"  Thus  historical  facts,  also,  tend  to  show  that  the  causes  of  the  re- 
cent riots  must  be  looked  for  elsewhere  than  in  the  occupation  of 
China  by  missionaries."  '  (3)  Any  candid  and  intelligent  study  of 
the  whole  situation  will  show  that  while  the  attitude  of  the  mission- 
aries, Protestant  and  Catholic,  on  the  question  of  ancestral  worship, 
and  the  course  of  some,  especially  the  Catholic  missionaries,  in  the 
matter  of  political  rights  and  protection  of  converts,  have  not  met 
with  the  approval  of  the  Chinese,  and  have  created,  much  more  in 
the  case  of  the  latter  than  of  the  former,  ill-will  among  the  people 
and  officials,  yet  with  a  certain  reservation  regarding  the  second  point 
mentioned,  neither  anti-foreign  feeling  in  general  nor  the  particular 
outbreak  of  it  in  the  Boxer  Uprising  can  be  charged  to  missionaries. 
While  his  testimony  is  pretty  strong,  stronger  than  I  care  now  to 
press,  surely  the  judgment  of  Dr.  Hohai,  barrister  at  law,  member 
of  the  Legislative  Council  of  Hongkong,  and  brother-in-law  of  the 
former  Chinese  minister  to  Washington,  Wu  Ting-fang,  is  reliable. 

In  An  Open  Letter  on  the  Situation,  addressed  at  the  time  of  the 
Uprising  to  Mr.  John  Bull  he  said, 

"  You  have  been  told,  both  officially  and  privately,  that  the  whole  affair  was  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  caused  by  foreign  missionaries  and  their  converts.  This  is 
absolutely  false,  and  don't  you  believe  it.  Your  missionaries  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, are  good  and  worthy  men,  and  if  left  to  themselves  will  make  more 
liiends  than  enemies  in  China.  But  they  have  always  been  hated  by  the 
mandarins  and  their  underlings,  by  the  literati  and  expectant  officials,  for  bring- 
ing to  the  people  of  China  not  only  religion,  but  also  enlightenment  and  civiliza- 
tion, thus  rendering  them  less  amenable  to  the  arbitrary  and  oppressive  policies 
of  their  superiors,  and  more  difficult  to  be  squeezed  and  fleeced  by  their  corrupt 
rulers.     .     .     .     The  present  rising  of  the  so-called  Boxers  against  missionaries 

1  The  Independent,  September  29,  1900,  pp.  2311-13. 


574.  Missions  and  Modern  History 

and   native  Christians  has  been  got  up  and  supported  by  the  high  mandarins  to 
drive  out  the  missionaries.     ...     I  wish  also  to  disabuse  your  mind  of  some 
of  the  ridiculous  charges  made  against  your  missionaries,  which  seem  to  have 
obtained   a  certain   degree  of  credence  among  some  of  your  leading  men — the 
foreign  missionaries  have  been  charged  with  having  committed  acts  of  indiscre- 
tion inasmuch  as  they  frequently  preached  against  the  ancient   beliefs  of  the 
Chinese,  as  for  instance,  ancestral  worship,  and  by  such  indiscreet  acts  they  have 
stirred  up  the  wrath  of  the  Celestials  against  them.     I  beg  to  tell  you  that  this  is 
not  a  fact,  and  that  the  anger  of  the  Chinese  people  is  not  so  easily  and  unrea- 
sonably aroused.     The   mere   speaking  against  a  thing  has  never  been  regarded 
by  the   Chinese  as  a  sufficient  cause   for  hostile  action  or  demonstration.     Of 
course  it  would  be  different  if  the  missionaries  sought  to  force  their  doctrines 
upon   the   natives,  or  endeavoured   forcibly  to  prevent  them   from  worshipping 
their  ancestors.     The  Chinese  Buddhist  priests  have  ever  preached  against  mar- 
riage, a  very  old  and  important  institution   amongst  the  Chinese.     Have  you 
ever  heard  that  the  people  of  China  rose  against  them  for  that  ?     .     .     .     The 
Mohammedans  have  ever  preached  against  the  eating  of  pork,  a  very  old  and 
universal  practice  among  the  Chinese  ; — for  this  were  they  ever  attacked  by  an 
infuriated  mob  ?     .     .     .     The  Chinese  people  are  not  so  unreasonable  as  that. 
However,  if  for  the  purpose  of  mining  or  constructing  a  railway  you  were  fool- 
ish  enough  to  remove   their  ancestral  graves  without  previously  obtaining  free 
and  full  consent,  a  serious  disturbance  might  easily  be  created.     .     .     .     Again 
the  missionaries  have  been  charged  with  another  indiscretion,  namely,  that  they 
made   no  separation  of  the  sexes  in  their  places  of  worship,  and  that  they  and 
their  converts  mixed  freely  together  in  company,  which  was  regarded  as  an  of- 
fence against  Chinese   customs  and  propriety  and  so  excited  their  ire.     This  is 
also  a  frivolous  charge.     The  Chinese  themselves,  both  men  and  women  often 
mingle  together  in  worshipping  at  some  of  their  temples.     ...     In  the  streets 
of  Shanghai  you  will  often  see  men  and  women  undoubtedly  of  Chinese  nation- 
ality driving  together  in  the  same  carriage,  and  in  the  native  gardens  there  male 
and  female  mingle  in  the  most  unconcerned  manner  possible,  and  they  excite  no 
ill-remarks  or  resentment  from  the  public.     .     .     .     It  is  alleged  that  they  (the 
missionaries)   have   from  time  to  time  interfered  in  the  litigations  and  with  the 
dispensation  of  justice  between  native  Christians  and  their  co-nationals.     This  is 
a  serious  charge  if  true.     But   first  of  all  show  me  a  single  yamen  in  the  whole 
of  China  whose  justice  is  dispensed  equitably  between  the  litigants  without  fear 
or  favour.    Is  it  not  notorious  that  every  native  tribunal  is  tainted  with  corruption 
and  bribery  ?     The  biggest  purse  will  always  win  the  suit.     The  suitors  are  not 
allowed   to  get  legal  experts  to  represent  them  in  their  cases,  and  the  mandarins 
can   deal  with   the  matter  coming  before  them  in  any  way  they  choose.     Under 
these   circumstances  it  is  quite  possible,  even  probable,  that  some  of  the  native 
converts  who  have  suffered  injustice  did  lay  their  cases  and  their  complaints  be- 
fore their  respective  foreign  spiritual  advisers,  and  request  them  to  make  repre- 
sentation, directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  proper  authorities  for  redress  and  justice. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  575 

It  is  also  quite  possible  that  some  good-natured  and  zealous  missionaries,  sym- 
pathizing with  them  regarding  their  grievance,  did  make  appeals  on  their  behalf, 
and  perchance  obtain  justice,  too.  This  is  not  interfering  with  the  dispensation 
of  justice,  but  assisting  in  procuring  it.  After  all,  please  remember  that  this  is 
only  an  unproven  charge.  The  Chinese  officials  all  well  know  that  the  foreign 
missionaries  have  no  right  to  interfere  in  any  legal  case  between  native  Chris- 
tians and  their  countrymen,  and  if  they  had  a  clear  conscience  and  a  clean  hand 
they  could  easily  and  at  any  time  send  the  interfering  missionaries  about  their 
business.  During  recent  years  we  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  this  charge  against 
the  missionaries,  but  I  cannot  recollect  having  heard  that  in  a  single  case  this 
charge  has  been  substantiated  and  brought  home  to  the  offenders.  It  is  easy  of 
course  to  make  accusations,  especially  when  the  accuser  wishes  to  find  some  ex- 
cuse for  his  hatred  of  the  accused.  .  .  .  The  present  crisis  is  then,  after  all, 
the  direct  outcome  of  the  anti-foreign  spirit  and  policy  of  the  central  Govern, 
ment." 

As  I  have  said,  this  seems  to  me  pretty  strong  and  some  mission- 
aries have  erred  in  this  matter  of  interference  in  lawsuits,  but  the 
judgment  of  one  of  the  most  capable  and  prudent  missionaries  in 
China,  Dr.  John  Ross  of  Manchuria,  is  an  absolutely  sound  and  de- 
fensible judgment,  in  which  he  declares  that  the  assertion  that  this 
disastrous  anti-foreign  movement  "  has  been  in  any  way  or  in  any 
sense  caused  by  the  teaching  or  preaching  of  missionaries  is  but  the 
evidence  that  the  person  affirming  is  totally  ignorant  at  once  of  the 
Chinese  and  of  missionaries."  '  The  real  burden  of  responsibility 
for  anti-foreign  feeling  in  China  and  for  its  outburst  in  the  Boxer 
massacres  cannot  be  laid  upon  missionaries.  It  rests  where  the  pre- 
ceding discussion  has  tried  to  show  it  belongs.* 

1  The  Missionary  Record  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Chtirch  of  Scotland, 
September,  1900,  p.  264. 

2  "  Had  the  missionaries  been  congregated  in  the  ports  like  the  bulk  of  Euro- 
peans in  China  they  would  not  have  been  singled  out  for  exceptionally  evil  treat- 
ment. The  missionaries  are  the  only  class  which,  as  a  class  of  foreigners,  treat 
the  Chinese  with  the  respect  due  to  human  beings.  In  all  other  classes  of  the 
community  are  to  be  found  persons  who  treat  the  Chinese  with  a  brutality  which 
is  possible  only  because  the  Chinese  dare  not  retaliate.  Of  this  difference  of 
treatment  the  Chinese  are  by  no  means  unaware.  The  stories  of  the  evil  deeds 
of  foreigners,  which  are  circulated  from  village  to  village  all  the  country  over 
and  are  the  cause  of  many  an  outburst  against  the  mannerless  '  Kueitz,'  are  stories 
which  never  or  very  rarely  originate  from  the  doings  of  the  missionary.  Not 
the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  brought  this  trouble  upon  the  politician ;  it  is  the 
politician  who  has  been  the  cause  of  the  terrible  sufferings  of  the  missionary 
body.     .     .     . 

"  But  that  missionaries  were  last  year  attacked  because  of  the  doctrines  they 
are  in  China  to  preach,  whether  Protestant  or  Catholic,  I  entirely  deny  and  with- 


$-j(y  Missions  and  Modern  History 

But  granting  that  the  real  causes  of  anti-foreign  feeling  in  general 
were  those  I  have  described,  it  remains  to  point  out  the  causes  which 
precipitated  the  chronic  ill  will  of  China  against  the  West  in  this  ter- 
rible movement. 

i.  First  was  the  overthrow  of  the  Reform  movement  of  1898,  the 
return  of  the  Dowager  Empress  and  the  reactionary  party  to  power, 
and  the  wave  of  conservative  bigotry  that  swept  over  the  land.  It  is 
impossible  to  convey  in  a  few  words  any  adequate  conception  of  the 
significance  of  this  movement.  The  young  Emperor  long  over- 
shadowed by  the  Dowager  Empress,  had  taken  the  administration  into 
his  own  hands.  He  surrounded  himself  with  young  and  progressive 
men.  He  studied  Western  civilization  and  religion,  purchasing  from 
the  depository  of  the  Bible  Society  copies  of  the  Scriptures  and  ob- 
taining books  and  papers  regarding  Western  practices  of  government 
and  customs  of  life.  The  China- Japan  War  had  revealed  to  him  and 
to  many  the  weakness  of  China  and  the  superiority  of  the  West. 
For  a  time  even  the  old  Dowager  Empress  must  have  felt  this.  A 
spirit  of  discontent  with  China's  position  grew  to  intensity,  and  the 
conviction  that  great  changes  were  necessary  became  overwhelming. 
Reform  clubs  were  established,  and  foreign  books  were  translated 
into  Chinese  and  poured  over  the  country,  and  missionaries  and  mis- 
sionary presses  were  unable  to  meet  the  demand.  Chang  Chih-tung, 
formerly  a  bitterly  anti-foreign  and  conservative  man,  in  charge  of 
the  most  bigoted  and  anti-foreign  province  of  Hu-nan,  changed  front 
completely  and  swung  the  province  with  him.  The  Emperor,  his 
tutor  and  other  advisers  whom  he  gathered  about  him,  did  not  ac- 
cept the  most  radical  reform  proposals,  but  thoroughly  sympathized 
with  and  encouraged  the  general  movement.  The  whole  empire  felt 
the  thrill  of  it.  Governors  established  schools,  confiscated  temples 
and  turned  them  into  colleges  and  employed  foreigners,  chiefly  mis- 
sionaries,   to  organize  them.     Mission    schools  and  churches  were 

out  qualification.  The  attacks  were  made  upon  missionaries  because  they  were 
foreigners,  because  they  were  members  of  those  communities  which  have  in 
politics  and  in  social  life  insulted  and  despised  the  proud  Chinese  who  did  not 
dare  to  resent  the  indignities  heaped  upon  them,  till  they  were  roused  to  madness 
by  the  events  of  Kiao-chou,  and  others  following  of  a  similar  character.  Missions, 
missionaries,  and  converts  suffered  on  account  of  the  aggressive  politics  of  the 
West.  Justice,  even  when  stern  and  cruel,  the  Chinese  respect;  but  injustice  by 
superior  power  they  hate,  even  while  they  dare  not  protest  "  (Ross,  The  Boxers 
in  Manchuria,  p.  2). 


The   Boxer  Uprising  577 

thronged.  The  missionaries  were  besieged  for  advice  and  for  plans 
for  the  advancement  of  reform.  The  pace  of  the  reform  grew  as 
the  glories  of  a  regenerated  China  unfolded  before  the  men  who  be- 
gan at  last  to  see  that  wisdom  had  not  been  buried  in  the  grave  of 
Confucius  twenty-five  centuries  before.  Kang  Yii-wei,  a  radically 
progressive  man,  a  scholar,  a  doctrinaire,  earnest  and  courageous, 
thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  Western  civilization  though  naively 
ignorant  of  many  of  the  practical  problems  of  political  administra- 
tion, became  the  Emperor's  most  trusted  counsellor,  and  in  the  winter 
of  1897-8,  edicts  began  to  appear  which  indicated  that  the  enormous 
machinery  of  China's  Government  was  swinging  out  of  its  old 
grooves.  "  A  simple  knowledge  of  the  Classics,"  said  the  Decree  of 
February  15,  1898,  "is  not  enough  to  fit  men  nowadays  for  im- 
portant posts  in  the  Imperial  Government."  After  this  with  increas- 
ing rapidity  edict  after  edict  appeared  attacking  old  abuses,  destroy- 
ing at  a  blow  ancient  governmental  institutions,  and  introducing  new 
and  revolutionary  principles.    Among  these  edicts  were  the  following  : 

(1)  To  abolish  the  essay  system  of  examination  which  had  been 
in  vogue  for  the  last  five  hundred  years. 

(2)  To  establish  a  university  for  the  study  of  Western  science  in 
Peking. 

(3)  To  convert  temples  into  schools  for  Western  education. 

(4)  To  establish  a  translation  board  whereby  books  on  Western 
learning  were  to  be  translated  into  Chinese. 

(5)  To  establish  a  patent  office  for  the  encouragement  of  every- 
thing that  is  pure  and  useful. 

(6)  To  protect  Christianity  without  any  further  evasions. 

(7)  To  make  the  reform  paper — Chinese  Progress — the  official 
organ  of  the  Government. 

(8)  To  abolish  useless  offices  both  in  Peking  and   the  provinces. 

(9)  To  have  young  Manchus  study  foreign  languages  and  travel 
abroad. 

On  September  12,  1898,  a  great  and  comprehensive  edict  appeared 
which  closed  with  a  statement  of  the  imperial  will  that  the  reform 
should  be  made  known  to  all,  and  an  astounding  and  unqualified  re- 
jection of  the  old  position  of  Chinese  sufficiency  and  exclusivism. 
"We  have  considered  and  studied  the  benefit  of  Western  learning, 
and  morning  and  night  our  heart  is  filled  with  the  desire  to  introduce 


578  Missions  and  Modern  History 

these  reforms  into  our  country."  But  the  reform  had  moved  too  fast  to 
carry  with  it  a  sufficiently  large  body  of  officials  or  influential  men. 
While  at  first  it  was  supported  by  many  parties,  it  broke  away  from 
all  but  the  more  radical,  and  in  September,  by  a  coup  d'etat  in  the 
palace,  all  of  whose  details  we  shall  never  know,  the  Emperor  was 
forced  to  resign  the  reins  of  government  again  to  the  Dowager  Em- 
press and  Kang  Yli-wei  and  his  fellow-reformers  either  were  executed 
or  obliged  to  flee  for  their  lives.  The  Western  Powers  might  easily 
have  intervened  to  prevent  the  usurpation  of  the  Dowager  Empress 
and  to  retain  the  Emperor  in  power.  One  day  of  Burlingame  might 
have  changed  the  destiny  of  China.  It  was  an  opportunity  greater 
even  than  that  presented  in  the  Tai-ping  Rebellion,  to  secure  a 
complete  transformation  of  the  character  of  the  Government,  and  to 
do  it  under  conditions  so  favourable  that  no  one  would  ever  have 
dared  to  predict  that  they  would  arise  in  China ;  but,  through  short- 
sightedness, want  of  cooperation,  and  the  desire  on  the  part  of 
some  to  prevent  China  from  becoming  a  great,  powerful,  enlightened 
State,  the  ministers  at  Peking  allowed  the  reform  era  to  close  and 
the  worst  reaction  against  foreign  influence  ever  seen  in  China  to  be 
introduced.  "  We  are  of  opinion,"  said  the  reactionary  party,  as 
it  returned  to  power,  in  the  edict  it  issued  in  the  Emperor's  name, 
"that  the  best  way  will  be  to  revert  to  the  old  order  of  things." 
That  was  what  happened  with  a  vengeance.  The  reign  of  terror 
that  set  in,  the  war  against  all  innovation  and  reform,  the  tone  of 
exclusivism  and  reactionism  in  the  imperial  utterances  served  notice 
upon  the  whole  Empire  that  the  spirit  of  friendliness  towards  the 
West  which  the  Reformers  had  inculcated  was  at  an  end,  and  that 
the  walls  were  to  go  up  again  where  they  had  been  broken  down. 
The  Reform  movement  was  a  great  nationalistic  movement  intended 
to  draw  the  West  into  China.  The  movement  that  grew  out  of  the 
overthrow  of  the  Reform  movement,  was  a  great  nationalistic  move- 
ment designed  to  drive  every  vestige  of  the  West  out  of  China  and  to 
cleanse  the  Celestial  Empire  from  its  pollution.  The  overthrow  of 
the  reform  era  prepared  China  for  the  great  movement  animated  by 
anti-foreign  hate. 

2.  One  of  the  first  edicts  of  the  Government  after  the  close  of  the 
reform  era,  refers  to  the  great  floods  caused  by  the  overflow  of  the 
Yellow  River  in  Shan-tung,  and  to  the  poverty  and  distress  caused 


The  Boxer  Uprising  57a 

by  them.1  Now  Shan-tung  is  a  poor  province  at  the  best.  The  Eng- 
lish, Irish  and  Scotch  consume  annually  seventeen  bushels  of  grain 
per  inhabitant,  the  Germans  sixteen,  the  French  twenty-five,  and  the 
Russians  twenty.  In  Shan-tung  the  people  would  have  only  eighteen 
and  one-half  bushels  if  every  square  inch  of  the  province  were  culti- 
vated, leaving  the  people  themselves  no  standing  ground  and  assum- 
ing that  all  is  arable.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Shan-tung  people  have 
about  eight  and  three-fourths  bushels  a  year  per  inhabitant.  The 
people  of  England,  France  and  Germany  have  each  two  and  one- 
sixth  acres  to  cultivate.  The  Shan-tung  man  has  one  and  one-fifth.2 
A  catastrophe  like  the  Yellow  River  overflow  causes  suffering  we 
cannot  appreciate.  It  left  a  great  section  of  the  province  in  want 
and  destitution,  therefore  in  discontent  and  turbulence,  ready  for  any 
movement  which  would  give  them  occupation  and  food, — all  the 
better  if  it  did  not  drive  them  back  to  the  wretched  monotone  of 
their  interminable  struggle  with  the  soil  for  a  bare  subsistence.  The 
floods  also  produced  conditions  in  the  matter  of  social  order  which 
begat  associations  capable  of  easy  transformation  into  military  com- 
panies and  predisposed  to  such  transformation. 

3.  In  West  Shan-tung  especially,  there  had  long  been  feuds  be- 
tween the  Chinese  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Christians.  There  were 
various  causes  for  this,  chiefly  the  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese 
that  the  Christians  through  the  protection  of  the  priests  were  given 
advantages  which  they  used  unfairly.  This  general  discontent  was 
immensely  increased  in  Shan-tung  and  elsewhere  in  China,  by  the  ac- 
ceptance by  the  Catholic  missionaries  of  the  political  rank  and  status 
accorded  them  by  the  imperial  decree  of  March  15,  1899,  secured 
by  the  French  minister.  This  decree  decided  in  favour  of  the  Cath- 
olic missionaries  a  long  standing  controversy  between  them  and 
Chinese  local  officials  and  viceroys,  gave  bishops  an  equal  rank  and 
dignity  with  viceroys,  and  lesser  dignitaries  in  the  Church  rank  and 
dignity  with  specified  lower  grades  of  Chinese  officials,  and  authorized 
all  to  demand  to  see  the  officials  of  corresponding  rank,  and  to  take 
up  civil  business  with  them  and  negotiate  and  finish  it.3     This  was  a 

1  Imperial  Edict  of  October  2,  1898. 

2  Records  of  First  Shan-tung  Conference,  pp.  i8f. 

3  A  Memorial  and  an  Imperial  Rescript,  Published  on  the  sjtft  of  March,  i8qq  : 

"  Churches  of  the   Catholic  religion  (the  propagation  of  which  has  been  long 
since  authorized  by  the  Imperial  Government)  having  been  built  at  this  time  in 


580  Missions  and  Modern  History 

concession  which  infuriated  many  of  the  Chinese  officials,  and  which, 
moreover,  in  the  most  dangerous  and  harmful  way,  represented  the 
missionary  movement  to  the  Chinese  as  political  and  not  religious. 
The  Protestant  missionaries  unanimously  refused  to  accept  any  of  the 

all  the  provinces  of  China,  we  long  to  see  the  Christians  and  the  people  live  in 
peace,  and,  in  order  to  make  their  protection  more  easy,  it  has  been  agreed  that 
local  authorities  shall  exchange  visits  with  missionaries  under  the  conditions  in- 
dicated in  the  following  articles : 

"  1.  In  the  different  degrees  of  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  bishops  being  in 
rank  and  dignity  the  equals  of  viceroys  and  governors,  it  is  agreed  to  authorize 
them  to  demand  to  see  viceroys  and  governors.  In  the  case  of  a  bishop  being 
called  home  on  business,  or  of  his  death,  the  priest  charged  to  replace  the  bishop 
will  be  authorized  to  demand  to  see  the  viceroy  and  governor.  Vicars-general 
and  archdeacons  will  be  authorized  to  demand  to  see  provincial  treasurers  and 
judges,  and  taotais.  Other  priests  will  be  authorized  to  demand  to  see  prefects 
of  the  first  and  second  class,  independent  prefects,  sub-prefects,  and  other  func- 
tionaries. Viceroys,  governors,  provincial  treasurers  and  judges,  taotais,  prefects 
of  the  first  and  second  class,  independent  prefects,  sub-prefects,  and  other  func- 
tionaries will  naturally  respond,  according  to  their  rank,  with  the  same  cour- 
tesies. 

"  2.  Bishops  will  draw  up  a  list  of  priests  whom  they  will  charge  specially  with 
the  treatment  of  business  and  with  relations  with  the  authorities,  indicating  their 
names  and  the  locality  of  their  missions.  They  will  send  this  list  to  the  viceroy 
or  governor,  who  will  order  their  subordinates  to  receive  them  conformably  to 
this  regulation.  (The  priests  who  shall  ask  to  see  the  local  authorities,  or  who 
shall  be  specially  designated  to  treat  of  business  should  be  Europeans.  How- 
ever, where  a  European  priest  is  not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  Chinese 
language  he  may  for  the  occasion  invite  a  Chinese  priest  to  accompany  him  and 
lend  him  assistance  as  interpreter.) 

"  3.  It  is  unnecessary  for  bishops  who  reside  outside  the  cities  to  go  from  a  dis- 
tance to  the  provincial  capital  to  ask  to  be  received  by  the  viceroy  or  governor, 
when  they  have  no  business  with  him.  When  a  new  viceroy  or  governor  arrives 
at  his  post,  or  when  a  bishop  is  appointed  or  arrives  for  the  first  time,  or  again  on 
the  occasion  of  felicitations  for  the  New  Year  and  the  principal  feasts,  bishops 
will  be  authorized  to  write  private  letters  to  viceroys  and  governors  and  send  them 
their  cards.  Viceroys  and  governors  will  respond  with  similar  courtesies.  Other 
priests  who  may  be  shifted  or  arrive  for  the  first  time,  may,  according  to  their 
rank,  ask  to  see  provincial  treasurers  and  judges,  taotais,  prefects  of  the  first  and 
second  class,  independent  prefects,  sub-prefects,  and  other  functionaries,  when 
they  are  provided  with  a  letter  from  their  bishop. 

"4.  When  a  mission  affair,  grave  or  important,  shall  come  up  unexpectedly  in 
any  province,  the  bishop  and  the  missionaries  of  the  place  should  ask  for  the  in- 
tervention of  the  minister  or  consuls  of  the  power  to  which  the  Pope  has  confided 
the  protection  of  religion.  These  last  will  regulate  and  finish  the  matter  either 
with  the  Tsung-Ii  Yamen  or  the  local  authorities.  In  order  to  avoid  protracted 
proceedings,  the  bishop  and  the  missionaries  have  equal  right  to  address  them- 
selves at  once  to  the  local  authorities,  with  whom  they  may  negotiate  the  matter 
and  finish  it.  Whenever  a  bishop  or  a  missionary  shall  come  to  see  a  mandarin 
on  business,  the  latter  is  bound  not  to  delay  the  negotiation,  to  be  conciliatory, 
and  to  arrive  at  a  solution. 

"5.  The  local  authorities  shall  give  timely  warning  to  the  people  of  the  place 
and  exhort  them  earnestly  to  live  on  good  terms  with  the  Christians;  they  must 
not  cherish  hatred  and  cause  trouble.     Bishops  and  priests  shall  in  the  same  way 


The  Boxer  Uprising  581 

privileges  accorded  by  the  decree.  Its  issue,  however,  and  its  ac- 
ceptance by  the  Catholics  who  alone  were  mentioned  in  it,  inflamed 
the  already  bitter  feelings  of  the  Chinese  officials  and  of  such  of  the 
people  as  were  informed  of  such  things,  and  added  another  element 
of  preparation  to  the  conditions  in  Shan-tung.1 

4.  There  were  certain  other  powerful  reasons  for  ill  feeling  in 
Shan-tung.  In  1897,  two  German  Catholic  missionaries  were  mur- 
dered by  a  mob  belonging  to  the  Big  Knife  Society.     Bishop  Anzer, 

exhort  the  Christians  to  devote  themselves  to  well-doing,  so  as  to  maintain  the 
good  name  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  act  so  that  the  people  will  be  contented 
and  grateful.  Wherever  a  suit  takes  place  between  the  people  and  the  Chris- 
tians, the  local  authorities  shall  hear  and  decide  it  equitably ;  the  missionaries 
must  not  mix  themselves  up  in  it  and  show  partiality  in  giving  their  protection; 
so  that  the  people  and  the  Christians  may  live  in  peace  "  {Thirteenth.  Annual 
Report  of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Christian  and  General  Knowledge 
among  the  Chinese,  for  the  Year  Ending  September  joth,  1900,  pp.  55-57)- 

1  Something  of  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  Catholic  missions  is  indicated  in  the 
following  naive  letter  from  Bishop  Hofman,  O.  F.  M.,  vicar  apostolic,  of  Shan-si, 
written  after  the  troubles  : 

"  After  an  enforced  absence  of  nearly  eleven  months,  I  have  just  returned  to 
Lou-ngan  Fu.  We  came  back  with  truly  extraordinary  ceremony,  and  more 
honours  were  paid  me  than  are  accorded  to  a  viceroy.  All  the  mandarins,  great 
and  little,  waited  for  me  outside  the  town ;  and  on  both  sides  of  the  road  the  vil- 
lagers lined  the  way.  A  general  and  staff,  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  soldiers, 
who  came  with  two  mandarins  as  far  as  the  bishop's  residence  in  Ho-nan  to  meet 
me,  formed  an  escort,  in  which  many  Christians  were  prominent,  happy  and 
proud,  banners  flying  and  music  playing.  I  am  sure  Shan-si  never  witnessed 
such  a  celebration  before. 

"What  did  it  all  mean?  you  will  ask.  Because  when  I  was  first  asked  to  re- 
turn I  found  the  situation  too  uncertain.  The  mandarins  had  done  nothing 
towards  establishing  peace,  and  the  people  were  emboldened  to  show  open  hos- 
tility. On  this,  one  of  the  European  ministers  set  vigorously  to  work,  and  the 
governor  of  the  province  finding  himself  threatened,  did  everything  in  his  power 
to  straighten  matters  out.  Very  soon  the  aspect  of  affairs  changed  entirely,  and 
I  could  come  back  without  risk. 

« I  now  have  to  live  and  conduct  myself  with  the  ceremony  of  a  viceroy.  I 
have  three  hundred  soldiers  at  my  disposal,  or  at  the  command  of  the  fathers. 
What  a  singular  thing  is  the  apostolic  life  !  All  this  is  directly  contrary  to  my 
religious  character,  and  puts  me  to  great  trouble.  But  the  honour  of  the  Church 
requires  it  and  I  cannot  avoid  it.  We  have  suffered  too  many  petty  annoyances 
and  insults;  too  many  injuries  and  illegal  oppression,  to  pass  the  sponge  over 
them  all  without  some  sort  of  reparation. 

"  The  most  trying  part  of  the  whole  matter  is  our  daily  intercourse  with  the 
mandarins,  who  all  now  appear  ouf  best  friends.  Yet  we  can  submit  to  it,  be- 
cause it  is  counterbalanced  by  their  willingness  to  help  direct  our  affairs,  which 
present  unforeseen  difficulties  and  are  often  very  perplexing.  I  shall  not  have 
long  to  support  this  new  dignity,  however.  My  responsibilities  have  become  too 
heavy  for  my  advanced  age,  and  the  Holy  Father  has  kindly  accepted  my  resig- 
nation "  ( The  Annals  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Jaith,  January  and  February, 
1902,  p.  18.) 


582  Missions  and  Modern  History 

the  Catholic  bishop,  was  in  Holland  at  the  time.  As  the  German 
Government  had  assumed  protectorate  over  the  Catholic  missionaries 
in  Shan-tung,  the  missionaries  being  German  and  not  French,  Anzer 
hastened  to  Berlin,  and  as  Chancellor  Von  Biilow  said  in  the  Ger- 
man Parliament,  November  8,  1898,  he  "  unequivocally  declared  that 
the  seizing  of  Kiao-chou  was  a  question  of  life  and  death  for  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  Chinese  missionary  work."  Nothing  loath,  the  Ger- 
man Government  promptly  seized  the  bay,  and  demanded  with  it  ex- 
tortionate concessions.  Now  the  Chinese  people  have  little  patriotism 
for  their  dynasties,  but  an  unutterable  love  for  their  own  soil.  The 
one  longing  of  the  Chinese  who  journey  to  foreign  lands  is  to  go 
home  to  rest  in  the  earth  of  the  fatherland.  Besides,  the  Chinaman 
knows  what  is  justice  and  what  is  infamous  wrong,  even  when  a  great 
nation  practices  it  under  the  cover  of  religion.  "  Hence,"  as  Dr. 
Ross  says,  "  when  the  Germans  landed  in  Shan-tung  and  annexed  the 
port  of  Kiao-chou,  a  cry  of  indignation  arose  all  over  China,  such  as 
I  never  heard  before."  '  On  the  heels  of  the  German  occupation  of 
Kiao-chou,  came  the  seizure  of  Port  Arthur  by  Russia,  of  Wei  Hai 
Wei  and  Kow-loon  by  Great  Britain.  The  Chinese  Government  did 
not  have  a  single  port  left  wholly  its  own  where  it  could  anchor  its 
fleet.  The  world  began  to  laugh.  Books  and  newspapers  openly 
discussed  the  partitionment  of  China  among  the  Western  powers.' 
A  frenzy  of  fear  and  of  patriotism,  with  which  it  seems  to  me  every 
true  man  must  have  a  profound  sympathy,  thrilled  through  China 
from  Peking  to  Canton,  from  the  sea  to  Tibet  and  the  Mongolian 
deserts ;  and  instead  of  marvelling  that  the  Northern  provinces  broke 
out  into  outrage  and  war,  I  wonder  increasingly  at  the  moderation, 
the  good  sense,  the  self-restraint  with  which  the  other  provinces  were 
held  aloof,  and  the  Western  nations  allowed  to  advance  to  Peking  and 

1  Missionary  Record  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  September 
I,  1900,  p.  264. 

2  This  cool  and  colossal  proposal  of  Sir  Richard  Temple  is  sufficient  illustra- 
tion : 

"  These  British  communities  are  pressing  slowly  but  as  we  hope  securely  on 
the  great  Yang-tse  valley  from  far  Shanghai  on  the  East  and  Mandalay  on  the 
West.  From  Mandalay  there  is  now  a  railway  to  Rangoon  near  the  sea.  So  the 
main  British  line  of  the  future  apparently  marked  out  by  destiny,  is  from  the  Bay 
of  Bengal  at  Rangoon  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  near  Shanghai,  a  distance  of  about 
3,000  miles  right  athwart  the  southeast  part  of  the  British  coast  from  sea  to  sea, 
one  of  the  finest  lines  for  the  march  of  empires  to  be  found  in  Asia  "  (Temple, 
Birds'  Eye  View  of  British  India,  p.  xxiv). 


The  Boxer  Uprising  583 

to  the  suppression  of  the  Uprising.  When  we  add  to  the  wrongs 
which  China  suffered  before  the  troubles  finally  came,  the  barbarities 
perpetrated  by  the  troops  of  the  West,  I  think  we  must  confess  that 
the  great  mass  of  the  Chinese  people,  thanks  to  the  strong  men  who 
governed  them,  present  a  picture  of  docility  and  submission  which 
would  never  have  been  witnessed  in  any  Western  nation  subjected  to 
a  like  test. 

What  I  have  said  hardly  presents  a  full  view  of  the  situation  in 
Shantung  from  which  the  Boxers  rose.  The  seizure  of  Kiao-chou 
was  followed  by  a  German  official  and  commercial  invasion  of  Shan- 
tung— an  invasion  which  rode  rough  shod  over  the  prejudices  of  the 
people,  ran  railroad  embankments  across  their  rice-fields,  annihilating 
irrigation  rights  upon  which  the  livelihood  of  whole  villages  depended 
and  sanctioned  by  the  recognition  of  unnumbered  generations  as  of 
most  sacredly  valid  title,  and  often  without  one  cash  of  compensation, 
struck  down  coolies  at  their  work  like  dogs,  and  murdered  in  cold 
blood  men  and  women,  and  publicly  whipped  and  insulted  Chinese 
officials.  A  simple  record  of  the  behaviour  of  the  Germans  in  Shan- 
tung, makes  a  justification  of  the  Boxer  Uprising  which  almost  con- 
ceals its  criminality,  its  stupidity  and  its  blind  injustice.  And  the 
Russians  in  Manchuria  and  French  and  Hindu  troops  in  Chih-li  are 
alleged  to  have  murdered  more  helpless  people  than  the  Boxers  killed, 
or  than  were  slain  by  fanatical  or  evil  men  in  Ho-nan,  Shan-si,  and 
wherever  else  Christians  fell  before  the  fierce  anti-foreign  wrath  of  an 
ignorant  and  indignant  people.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  the  Boxer 
Uprising  was  an  outrage.  A  heathen  outrage  does  not  justify  the 
Christian  outrage  that  precipitated  it,  or  the  Christian  outrage  that' 
avenged  it.1 

1 "  We  ourselves  believe  that  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  exaggeration ; 
there  always  is  exaggeration  in  such  cases.  But  it  has  not  been  all  exaggeration. 
There  has  been  a  solid  substratum  of  terrible  facts.  With  what  face  are  we  to 
denounce  Boxer  atrocities  when  such  things  stand  to  the  credit  of  the  Europeans 
themselves?  It  sends  a  thrill  of  horror  through  every  white  man's  bosom  to 
learn  that  forty  missionary  women  and  twenty -five  little  children  were  butchered 
by  the  Boxers,  but  Mr.  Taguchi,  whose  testimony  is  beyond  impeachment,  and 
who  speaks  in  the  sequel  of  investigations  personally  conducted  by  himself,  tells 
us,  in  the  columns  of  Keizai  Zasshi,  that  in  T'ung-Chou  alone,  a  city  where 
the  Chinese  made  no  resistance  and  there  was  no  fighting,  five  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-three Chinese  women  of  the  upper  classes  committed  suicide  rather  than 
survive  the  indignities  they  had  suffered.  Women  of  the  lower  orders  fared 
similarly,  he  tells,  at  the  hands  of  the  soldiers,  but  were  not  unwilling  to  survive 
their  shame.     It  is  all  very  well  to  advance  the  stock  excuse  that  among  thou- 


584  Missions  and  Modern  History 

I  believe  that  what  has  been  set  forth  in  this  chapter  gives  a  fair 
account  of  the  causes  of  the  Boxer  Uprising  which  brought  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  a  close  in  China  amid  scenes  of  ruin  and  destruc- 
tion. It  will  be  seen  as  time  goes  on  that  it  was  not  mission  stations 
and  merchants'  hongs  and  legations  alone  that  were  destroyed  ;  but 
that  in  the  fury  of  the  Uprising,  other  things,  too,  were  destroyed,  evil 
and  good ;  and  some  things  born,  good  and  evil. 

One  result  of  the  Boxer  massacres  has  been  the  vindication  of  the 
sincerity  of  the  Chinese  Christians  beyond  cavil.  Readiness  to  die 
for  one's  faith  does  not  prove  that  the  faith  is  true,  but  it  does  offer 
powerful  evidence  that  the  martyr  believes  it  to  be  true,  and  the 
thousands  of  native  Christians  who  have  peacefully  laid  down  their 
lives  rather  than  deny  Christ,  have  sounded  the  death  knell  of  all  that 
cheap  talk  of  "  rice  Christians  "  which  came  chiefly  from  those  whose 
Christianity  offered  in  the  open  market  would  not  have  brought 
even  rice. 

The  perils  of  the  missionaries  during  the  Uprising  raised  in  a  sharp 
and  distinct  way  the  old  question  of  the  political  rights  of  mission- 
aries. Some  have  contended  that  the  missionaries  should  be  abso- 
lutely prohibited  by  their  home  Governments  from  going  to  China, 
others  that  they  should  be  confined  to  the  treaty  ports,  others  that 
they  should  be  allowed  to  go  into  the  interior,  but  with  the  privilege 
of  extra-territoriality  withdrawn,  others  that  Governments  should 
wash  their  hands  of  the  whole  business  and  have  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  the  missionaries.  Missions,  these  people  hold,  are  an  out- 
lawed and  illegitimate  enterprise,  and   the  missionary  has  no  legal 

sands  of  soldiers  some  are  always  found  whose  elementary  passions  are  aroused 
to  an  uncontrollable  degree  by  the  scenes  and  doings  inseparable  from  warfare. 
Grant  all  that,  grant  that  our  brute  nature  resumes  the  mastery  under  certain 
conditions,  we  have  then  to  answer  the  question,  Why  should  not  the  same  ex- 
cuse apply  to  the  case  of  the  Boxers  ?  With  what  show  of  consistency  is  the  Oc- 
cident to  denounce  the  barbarity  of  the  Chinese,  when  Occidental  soldiers  go  to 
China  and  perpetrate  the  very  acts  which  constitute  the  basis  of  the  charge  of 
barbarity?"  (Article,  "The  Atrocities  in  China,"  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  Novem- 
ber 3,  1900).  "One  lesson  taught  by  the  Chih-li  campaign  is  that  no  trust  what- 
ever can  be  placed  in  the  stories  told  by  any  newspaper  correspondent  unless  he 
is  a  man  whose  reputation  for  veracity  and  conscientious  care  has  been  well 
established.  A  great  part  of  the  accusations  preferred  against  Russian  and 
German  troops  have  now  been  proved  to  be  wholly  without  foundation,  yet  it  is 
very  doubtful  whether  subsequent  contradictions  of  these  falsehoods  have  erased 
the  original  impression  from  the  public  mind.  To  make  a  slain  is  always  much 
easier  than  to  remove  it"  (Article,  "The  Undying  Scandal,"  Japan  Weekly 
Mail,  February  8,  1902;. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  £85" 

rights.  An  American  who  goes  to  China  is  an  American  still,  unless, 
perchance,  he  should  happen  to  be  a  true  Christian, — but  if  he  goes 
in  the  interest  of  religion,  he  forfeits  his  nationality.  Now  (1)  this 
proposal  is  absurd,  for  nationality  is  not  a  thing  that  can  be  taken  off 
like  a  coat  in  this  way.  And  even  if  the  United  States  should  de- 
nationalize its  missionaries,  that  would  not  make  them  citizens  of 
China,  or  put  them  in  the  way  of  becoming  such.  (2)  The  proposal 
is  impossible.  One  class  of  citizens  cannot  be  distinguished  in  this 
way  from  another  class  in  the  denial  of  rights,  without  the  conse- 
quence that  all  classes  will  feel  it.  Earl  Granville  pointed  this  out 
to  Sir  Thomas  Wade  in  the  correspondence  which  followed  the  Cir- 
cular of  the  Chinese  Government  of  1891,  on  the  Missionary  Ques- 
tion.1 (3)  To  do  such  a  thing  would  be  perilous.  It  is  one  thing 
to  deny  unconceded  rights.  It  is  another  thing  to  destroy  established 
rights.  To  do  so  does  not  always  leave  one  where  he  was  before  the 
abolished  rights  were  obtained.  To  deny  the  missionary  his  present 
status  would  not,  it  is  true,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  make  any 
difference,  locally;  for  the  missionary  let  alone  will  win  his  way. 
But  it  would  be  a  formal  notification  to  the  Chinese  Government  and 
ultimately  to  every  rowdy,  robber  and  mob  that  citizenship  under  a 
foreign  Government  is  worthless,  and  the  Chinese  Government  would 
soon  cease  to  distinguish  between  the  expatriated  missionary  and  the 
harlot  or  rumseller  who  is  a  fully  recognized  citizen.  (4)  And 
those  very  terms  suggest  the  infamy  of  such  a  view.  The  American 
harlot  may  set  up  her  brothel,  as  she  has  done  in  Shanghai  and 
Hankow,  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  may  wave  over  her  pollution. 
The  American  saloon-keeper  or  whiskey  trader  may  take  refuge  under 
the  folds  of  the  flag  and  sell  his  wares  in  any  open  port  in  China. 
But  the  missionary,  although  the  treaties  speak  specifically  of  him, 
and  the  Chinese  have  voluntarily  conceded  to  him  many  rights,  is  on 
this  new  theory  a  man  without  a  country.  The  enterprise  with  which 
he  is  connected  is  an  enterprise  of  expatriation,  and  he  himself  is  an 
alien,  a  political  pariah.  He  may  have  fought  for  his  country  and 
be  paying  taxes  for  its  support,  but  simply  because  he  is  a  Christian, 
a  conscientious  Christian,  who  believes  that  Christianity  is  too  good 
to  be  misappropriated  to  any  one  land,  he  is  to  be  denationalized. 
If  he  will  abandon  his  Christianity  and  take  a  Chinese  mistress,  and 
1  Blue  Book,  China,  No.  i,  1S72,  p.  20. 


586  Missions  and  Modern  History 

go  into  the  liquor  business,  he  can  claim  the  full  protection  of  an 
American  citizen.  Surely  no  honourable  man  can  maintain  a  doctrine 
so  infamous.  Men  are  to  be  free  to  pour  the  vices  of  Christendom 
over  the  world.  Christendom  will  recognize  them  as  its  legitimate 
representatives.  But  the  men  who  try  to  stem  this  foul  tide,  who  try 
to  give  the  world  those  eternal  principles  from  which  Christian  civili- 
zation, human  purity  and  national  righteousness  proceed,  are  to  be  sent 
out  without  passports, l  but  with  the  implicit  proclamation,  "These 
men  may  be  treated  as  you  please.  We  disown  them.  Kill  them. 
Burn  their  houses.  Outrage  their  wives.  Torture  their  children. 
What  do  we  care?  They  have  no  rights."  Now  I  repeat  that  the 
missionary  could  stand  this  better  than  his  Government.  He  makes 
his  own  way  in  any  event,  and  he  is  received  and  ultimately  loved 
not  so  much  because  of  his  nationality  as  in  spite  of  it.  But  his 
failure  to  use  rights  is  one  matter.  The  denial  of  these  rights  to  him 
is  a  different  matter.  These  two  questions  should  be  kept  distinct. 
One  is,  What  are  the  missionaries'  rights?  And  I  assert  that  an 
American  does  not  forfeit  his  rights  by  being  a  Christian ;  that  a  mis- 
sionary is  entitled  to  all  that  the  treaties  guarantee  him,  and  that  he 
is  entitled  to  demand  that  his  Government  shall  procure  for  him  in 
its  treaties  no  less  privileges  than  it  secures  for  his  fellow  citizens. 
"I  am  a  Roman  citizen,"  said  Paul,  the  Christian.  Paul  asserted 
his  political  rights.  The  morality  of  a  missionary's  doing  so  in  China 
is  precisely  the  same  as  the  morality  of  Paul's  doing  so  at  Philippi 
and  Jerusalem.  But  the  other  question  is,  What  shall  he  do  with  his 
rights?  And  I  answer,  Whatever  is  best  for  the  cause  of  Christ. 
He  surrendered  His  right  to  be  on  an  equality  with  God.  And 
whenever  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  His  name  it  is  best  for  His  rep- 
resentatives to  decline  political  protection,  and  to  accept  death,  to 
waive  indemnity  and  to  submit  to  loss,  they  must  do  so  in  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  Only  they  will  do  it  in  His  Spirit.  None  other  dictated 
to  Him.  The  rights  He  laid  down  were  not  rights  in  which  His 
ownership  was  denied.  "  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,"  He  said  of 
His  life,  "and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again."  Missionaries  will 
occupy  the  same  attitude  towards  their  rights.  They  are  their  rights. 
They  have  a  right  to  surrender  them  when  they  will ;  but  no  man 
may  take  them  from  them. 

1  St.  James  Gazette,  Editorial,  September  13,  1900. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  587 

And  often,  as  the  history  we  have  traced  shows,  it  is  expedient  for 
the  missionary  to  hold  his  real  rights  in  abeyance  or  to  yield  them. 
Again  and  again  missions  and  missionaries  have  done  this.  "  It 
is  dangerous,"  says  Dr.  Ross,  "for  us  to  demand  always  what  we 
call  '  Treaty  Rights ' — rights  under  treaties  extorted  from  China. 
Better  to  quietly  endure  many  a  wrong  than  assist  by  ever  claiming 
our  '  rights  '  to  deepen  the  sense  of  irritation  given  by  our  presence 
in  China."  1  And  I  believe  it  to  be  the  settled  policy  of  all  mission- 
aries in  China,  save  the  Roman  Catholic,  to  refrain  absolutely  from 
carrying  questions  to  either  Chinese  or  consular  officials  until  driven 
to  it  by  the  necessity  of  thus  avoiding  greater  evils  than  would  be 
entailed  by  their  silence.  So  long  as  the  conditions  are  as  they  are 
in  China,  the  people  ignorant  and  suspicious,  the  Government  sore 
and  slow,  the  principle  of  extra-territoriality  in  existence,  the  mis- 
sionary will  have  to  be  wise  in  his  insistence  upon  those  rights  which 
he  could  not  renounce  if  he  would,  and  which  he  ought  not  to  re- 
nounce if  he  could.  They  hamper  him  as  well  as  help  him,  but 
they  come  to  him  in  the  unfolding  plan  of  God,  and  he  must  use 
them  as  a  Divine  trust  and  responsibility,  for  the  sake  above  all  of 
his  cause,  but  also  for  the  sake,  in  a  sense  we  shall  some  day  more 
perfectly  understand,  of  the  nation  from  which  he  has  come,  and  the 
nations  to  which  he  has  gone. 2 

The  more  difficult  problem  of  the  relation  of  the  missionary  to  the 

1  Chinese  Recorder,  May,  1900,  p.  239. 

2  "  The  State  has  acquired  some  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Church,  and  is  likely 
to  acquire  more  ;  for  the  career  of  the  free  State  has  barely  begun.  The  creation 
of  a  united  Germany,  the  birth  of  Italian  unity,  the  rise  of  Japan,  the  vast 
expansion  of  lay  education  through  the  public  school  and  the  university,  and 
many  another  feature  of  contemporary  life,  tell  us  with  unmistakable  emphasis 
that  for  an  indefinite  stretch  of  centuries  in  the  future  the  conception  of  the  State 
is  bound  to  gain  steadily  in  spiritual  significance,  and  in  the  power  to  command 
the  spirit  and  imagination  of  our  picked  men  and  women. 

"  Some  will  think  that  the  State  has  been  stealing  clothes  from  the  Church. 
But  it  is  rather  the  case  that  the  Church  herself  is  entering  a  new  phase  of  her 
history.  All  the  inherited  dogmas  of  Christianity  were  shaped  in  a  period  when 
the  State  was  either  moribund  or  else  possessed  no  first-hand  spiritual  significance. 
But  now  the  State  receives  its  title  direct  from  God  and  the  sunshine.  The 
Church  therefore  is  facing  a  new  fact  which  has  a  central  position  in  the  spiritual 
order  of  things.  Christianity  is  to  triumph  in  the  great  debate  now  beginning, 
which  we  call  comparative  religion,  by  proving  that  the  Christian  view  of  the 
universe,  as  it  is  embodied  in  the  person  of  Christ,  is  alone  able  to  endow  the 
principle  of  individuality  with  sovereign  authority  in  history.  The  Church  must 
put  herself  forward  as  the  ally  and  interpreter  of  the  free  State"  (Professor 
Nash,  of  Harvard,  quoted  in  Federation,  September,  1900,  p.  16. 


588  Missions  and  Modern   History 

troubles,  persecution,  lawsuits  of  native  Christians,  has  already  been 
suggested.  Many  have  declared  the  irritation  caused  by  missionary 
interference  here  to  be  one  great  cause  of  anti-foreign  feeling.  Un- 
doubtedly the  Chinese  do  resent  the  superior  status  which  is  often 
obtained  for  native  Christians.  This  superiority,  so  far  as  it  exists, 
resides  in  exemption  from  certain  local  subscriptions  for  idolatrous 
or  semi-idolatrous  entertainments  or  performances,  and  in  protection 
against  official  squeezing.  As  over  against  any  such  advantages 
should  be  placed  the  real  ostracism,  even  to  the  extent  of  exclusion 
from  his  trade  guild,  which  the  Christian  usually  accepts,  the  loss  of 
the  seventh  of  his  income  by  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and  a 
host  of  petty  annoyances  and  persecutions  which  often  mount  up  to 
something  more  than  petty.  Furthermore,  it  is  the  settled  policy  of 
the  Protestant  missionaries  to  discourage  converts  from  all  appeals  to 
the  yamens,  and  to  refrain  themselves  from  ever  appearing  or  using 
influence  there.  Of  a  large  number  of  missionaries  of  experience 
consulted  on  this  subject,  one-third  reported  that  they  had  never  in 
their  missionary  experience  even  once  interfered  in  behalf  of  native 
Christians.1  That  there  is  danger  of  abuse  here  all  missionaries  ad- 
mit, and  they  strenuously  strive  to  escape  it. 

And  yet  it  would  be  unjust,  though  it  would  be  pleasant,  not  to 
point  out  that  in  this  matter  the  Catholics  have  pursued  a  course 
radically  different  from  the  Protestants.  This  is  not  a  canard  of 
Protestant  missionaries.  The  Chinese  themselves  make  the  distinc- 
tion. They  made  it  officially  and  solemnly  in  the  Memorandum  of 
187 1,  on  the  Missionary  Question.  That  Memorandum  declares 
that  "wherever  missionaries  of  the  Romish  profession  appear,  ill- 
feeling  begins  between  them  and  the  people."  It  attributes  this  ill- 
feeling  to  certain  causes  with  detailed  specifications  emphasizing  es- 
pecially this  matter  of  interference  between  native  Christians  and  the 
Chinese  officials ;  and  then  points  out  that  while  the  Government 
understands  that  there  is  a  difference  between  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants, the  people  do  not,  and  visit  upon  all,  the  ill-feeling  aroused  by 
the  former.  In  communicating  this  document  to  the  Stale  Depart- 
ment, Mr.  Low,  the  United  States  minister,  wrote:  "  ll  is  a  notice- 
ble  fact  that  among  all  the  cases  cited  there  does  not  appear  to  be 
one  in  which  Protestant  missionaries  are  charged  with  violating 
1  Report  of  Second  Shan-tung  Missionary  Conference,  pp.  102-1 16. 


The  Boxer  Uprising  589 

treaty,  law  or  custom."  It  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  are  allowed 
to  investigate  their  work  that  the  Catholic  missionaries  by  their  devo- 
tion and  earnestness  win  the  confidence  and  love  of  their  people.  We 
would  not  believe  otherwise.  But  it  is  also  true  that  they  have  done 
great  harm  by  their  political  interference  whether  in  the  matter  of 
local  support  of  Catholic  Christians  in  the  Chinese  courts,  of  them- 
selves usurping  the  functions  of  Chinese  officials  as  they  have  done 
in  Manchuria  and  even  trying  cases  where  one  party  may  not 
be  a  Christian  at  all,  '  or  of  demanding  vengeance  for  the  murder 
of  their  missionaries,  and  so  bringing  down  upon  all  foreigners  in 
China,  the  avalanche  of  anti- foreign  hate.  As  Bishop  Anzer  himself 
said  :  "The  first  and  chief  cause  of  the  persecution  of  the  Christians 
in  China  was  the  occupation  of  Kiao-chou.  This  act  offended  the 
Chinese  national  pride  to  the  quick.  It  led  to  other  similar  acts. 
Port  Arthur,  Wei  Hai  Wei  followed,  and  the  Western  press  began  to 
speak  about  the  division  of  China.  The  governor  of  Shan-tung  has 
described  the  situation  in  a  nutshell  as  follows :  '  Because  the  mis- 
sionaries were  murdered  the  Germans  came  ;  then  came  Kiao-chou, 
and  then  came  all  the  rest !  '  Then  turning  to  me,  he  said,  '  You 
called  the  Germans;  and  if  they  had  not  come,  Kiao-chou,  Port 
Arthur  and  other  places  would  not  be  in  foreign  hands.  You  are 
guilty  in  all  these  things.'"2  This  is  not  a  complete  statement, 
but  it  is  a  statement  of  truth. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  the  question  of  the  relation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  Christian  missions  to  native  customs,  where  the  latter 
are  anchored  in  the  superstitions  and  idolatries  of  the  people.  There 
will  often  be  diversity  of  opinion  regarding  any  given  custom  as  to 
whether  it  has  such  anchorage.  There  is  difference  of  view  on  this 
point  in  China  regarding  ancestor  worship,  the  supreme  Chinese  cus- 
tom antagonized  by  missions.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  mis- 
sionaries, however,  believe  that  worship  to  be  essentially  idolatrous, 
and  they  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  allowed  to  live  in  the  Christian 
Church.  Of  course  Christian  missionaries  have  but  one  course  in 
such  matters  open  to  them,  and  that  is  the  course  of  absolute  honesty 
and  avoidance  of  compromise.     As  Minister  Wu's  brother-in-law  has 

1  Missionary  Record  of  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  September  I, 
1900,  pp.  265^ 
1  The  Independent,  December  20,  1900,  p.  3060. 


590  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

pointed  out,  such  a  course  with  reference  to  ancestor  worship,  while 
it  will  be  condemned  by  the  Chinese,  need  not  anger  them,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  does  not,  when  the  Christian  position  comes  to  be  under- 
stood. Chang  Chih-tung  sees  this,  and  vindicates  the  Christian 
nations  from  the  charge  of  filial  irreverence.  "Again  in  the  Mosaic 
Decalogue,  the  duty  of  honouring  one's  parents,"  he  says,  "is 
placed  next  to  that  of  worshipping  heaven,  and  foreigners  also  put 
on  mourning  for  deceased  parents  and  wear  black  bands  as  the 
badge.  Although  they  have  no  such  things  as  ancestral  beads  or 
tablets  of  deceased  relatives,  in  lieu  of  them  they  place  the  photo- 
graphs of  their  dead  parents  and  brothers  on  the  tables  in  their 
houses,  and  make  offerings  to  them.  And  while  they  make  no  sac- 
rifice at  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors,  they  repair  their  graves  and 
plant  flowers  upon  them  as  an  act  of  worship.  It  will  be  seen  then, 
that  Western  people  also  hold  in  common  with  us  the  Relation  of 
Father  and  Son."1  Chang  Chih-tung  needs  some  further  enlight- 
enment, but  he  knows  too  much  to  oppose  Christianity  on  the  ground 
of  its  lack  of  inculcation  of  filial  piety.  In  simple  fact,  no  custom 
of  Christianity  and  no  opposition  of  Christianity  to  custom  can  arouse 
enough  hostility  to  counterbalance  its  love  producing  power.  The 
saying  of  John  Lawrence  already  quoted  of  government  in  India,  is 
true  of  missions  everywhere  :  "  Christian  things  done  in  a  Christian 
way  will  never  alienate  the  heathen."  Where  they  do,  where  con- 
sistent and  Christlike  Christianity  arouses  wrath,  then  the  missionary 
must  quietly  accept  it,  as  his  Master  did,  knowing  well  that  his 
acceptance  will  issue  as  his  Master's  did,  in  a  triumph  sure  and 
glorious. 

And  now,  lastly,  turning  from  the  past,  what  is  to  be  said  of  the 
future?2     Would  that  it  might  be  said  that  the  issue  of  the  Boxer 

1  China's  Only  Hope,  pp.  45f. 

sOne  thing  that  is  to  be  said  is  that,  as  often  before,  the  West's  way  of  punish- 
ing China  becomes  a  new  source  of  trouble  and  hate: 

"The  indemnity  exacted  by  foreigners  for  the  Boxer  outbreak  from  the  Chinese 
Government  is  being  raised  in  two  ways:  one  by  an  increase  of  the  tariff  on  all 
imported  goods,  the  Other  by  levying  additional  taxation  of  various  kinds  on  the 
people  in  the  provinces.  The  levy  of  the  latter  is  made  the  excuse  for  extorting 
mote  than  is  really  needed,  and  the  necessity  of  the  levy  is  made  to  appear  as  a 
foreign  oppression,  thereby  stimulating  anti-foreign  feeling  amongst  the  people. 

"As  the  indemnity  of  450,000,000  taels  (^'60,000,000)  has  not  only  been  pro- 
vided for  ami  partly  paid,  but  is  made  the  excuse  for  additional  levies,  one  may 
inter  thai  the  Chinese  people  can  be  made  to  bear  a  heavier  burden  of  taxation 


The  Boxer  Uprising  59 1 

trouble  would  be  a  radical  change  in  the  policy  of  the  West  in  dealing 
with  China.  Explaining  the  course  of  the  Boxer  outbreak,  and  attrib- 
uting it  to  "  the  deep-seated  hatred  of  the  Chinese  people  towards  for- 
eigners," Li  Hung  Chang  said  "  China  has  been  oppressed,  trampled 
upon,  coerced,  cajoled,  her  territory  taken,  her  usages  flouted.  Her 
people  believe  that  they  have  both  the  right  and  the  power  to  act  as 
a  sovereign  nation."  1  China  brought  a  great  deal  of  it  upon  herself, 
but  this  is  the  true  description  of  the  treatment  she  has  received.  And 
there  is  no  prospect  of  a  change.  In  arranging  the  terms  of  peace, 
the  foreign  powers  have  had  no  concern  for  China's  truest  interests.2 
They  have  taken  all  they  could,  and  have  flung  the  Chinese  back 
upon  themselves,  again,  without  one  attempt  to  help  the  poor  land 
which  twice  before  when  the  opportunity  presented  itself  of  delivering 
her,  the  Western  Powers  betrayed.  Politically  it  is  evident  that 
China  is  still  to  be  the  prey  of  the  unscrupulous  and  the  strong.  No 
nation  has  arisen  with  enough  unselfishness  and  far-sightedness  and 
moral  power  to  say  that  the  past  course  of  brutal  wrong  shall  cease, 
and  China  be  helped  in  spite  of  herself  to  her  feet.  This  is  however, 
the  new  spirit  of  Japan  towards  China  and  she  has  already  begun  a 
great  propaganda  to  persuade  China  of  this.3 

than  at  present,  and  no  doubt  sooner  or  later  their  capacity  to  do  so  will  be  used 
for  some  purpose  or  other.  Whether  when  levied  it  will  be  used  to  produce 
foreign  trouble,  or  the  levying  of  it  will  cause  internal  disorder,  it  is  impossible 
to  say,  but  the  general  opinion  is  that  the  indemnity  taxation  and  its  outgrowths  do 
not  make  for  the  hoped-for  peace  and  quietness  which  all  friends  of  China  so  ear- 
nestly wish  her,  and  for  that  educational  and  material  progress  which  this  Society 
is  so  anxious  to  further  "  (Sixteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion 
of  Christian  and  General  Knowledge  Among  the  Chinese,  icjoj,  p.  21). 

1  Quoted  in  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  October  6,  1 900. 

2  "  The  Chinese  Government  administration  is  advancing  steadily  if  slowly  on 
the  road  of  progress.  This  is  not  seen  by  looking  at  Peking,  but  by  looking  at 
the  provincial  capitals,  where  Western  ideas  are  already  leavening  provincial  ad- 
ministrations. If  China  be  given  another  fifteen  or  twenty  years  of  sovereign 
integrity,  there  is  every  sign  that  she  will  evolve  a  Government  system  suited  to 
the  people,  to  the  times  and  existing  conditions.  .  .  .  But  certain  and  sure 
as  the  progressive  movement  is,  the  disruptive  factors  of  foreign  origin  are 
moving  faster,  and  unless  the  proportion  between  them  is  altered  the  rapid  dis- 
integration of  the  empire  is  bound  to  come  about.  These  disruptive  factors  are 
not  chiefly  annexations  of  territory.  Such  could  be  likened  to  the  amputation  of 
a  limb,  mutilating  the  body,  yet  not  necessarily  affecting  its  mental  integrity. 
The  most  serious  of  the  disruptive  factors  are  the  imposition  of  agreements  which 
ignore  her  sovereign  rights  without  nominally  interfering  with  her  eminent  do- 
main "  (Article  by  James  S.  Fearon  on  "  The  Chinese  Problem,"  in  the  Journal 
of  the  American  Asiatic  Association,  October,  1903,  p.  266). 

3 "  Formerly   the  professors  in  the  few  colleges  for  the  teaching  of  Western 


592  Missions  and  Modern  History 

But  what  the  nations  will  not  do,  Christian  missions  have  been 
silently  and  steadily  accomplishing.  They  are  working  now,  still, 
unobtrusive,  irresistible,  and  they  propose  to  achieve  in  the  time  and 

subjects  were  all  Europeans  or  Americans.  Now  that  the  civil  and  military 
colleges,  agricultural  and  normal  schools  are  established  in  all  the  provinces,  as 
reported  by  us  last  year,  we  find  that  with  the  few  exceptions  of  colleges  opened 
by  Yuen  Shih-kai,  Viceroy  of  Chih-li,  Chou  Fu  the  Governor  of  Shan-tung  and 
one  or  two  others,  by  far  the  great  majority  of  professors  in  these  institutions  as 
well  as  military  and  police  inspectors  are  Japanese. 

"  And  even  in  religious  matters  we  find  that  Japanese  are  endeavouring  to 
assert  an  influence  by  banding  together  a  large  number  of  votaries  who  are  pro- 
fessedly Buddhistic  as  regards  religion  and  pro-Japanese  as  regards  politics. 

"  The  immense  and  growing  influence  of  Japanese  on  Chinese  during  late 
years  is  a  great  fact  patent  to  every  one  who  has  given  any  attention  to  the 
subject. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  so  wide-spread  a  pro- Japanese  propaganda  as 
exists  in  China  depends  solely  on  the  personal  enthusiasm  of  individual  agents, 
and  one  must  assume  from  its  extent  and  progress  that  it  is  an  organization  com- 
manding very  powerful  sympathy  on  the  Japanese  side,  while  the  recognition  it 
has  secured  in  China  would  seem  to  indicate  that  it  has  commended  itself  to 
many  influential  Chinese  in  high  places. 

"  One  naturally  asks  why  China  in  her  desire  for  knowledge  should  turn  to 
japan,  knowing  as  she  must  that  everything  to  be  learned  there  can  only  be  had 
at  second  hand,  that  the  fountainhead  of  modern  knowledge  and  civilization  is 
in  the  West  and  that  its  stream  naturally  flows  from  thence  as  its  source.  Why 
do  not  the  Chinese  go  to  the  fountainhead  ?  The  reason  has  been  suggested  by 
us  in  previous  reports.  The  presentation  of  a  purely  secular  educational  system 
has  charms  for  those  Chinese  who  make  little  of  all  religion  and  really  respect 
none  ;  the  affiliation  of  two  peoples  which  are  or  have  been  under  Buddhistic 
influences  promises  to  become  easy  of  accomplishment  on  the  basis  of  a  common 
religious  system,  tolerable  because  old  established  ;  and  the  desire  of  weakness 
to  be  friendly  with  strength,  already  proved ;  all  these  are  so  many  factors  in 
favour  of  a  Sino- Japanese  friendliness  being  brought  about.  What  such  a  close 
coming  together  of  the  two  leading  independent  Oriental  nations  may  lead  to, 
politically,  is  beyond  human  power  to  divine,  and  to  speculate  upon  it  is  perhaps 
outside  this  Society's  province.  So  long  as  national  union  has  as  its  motive  love, 
good  will  and  desire  to  be  delivered  from  oppression,  such  a  combination  might 
not  be  considered  an  element  of  danger.  But  if  it  means  the  building  up  of  a 
Power  capable  of  antagonizing  Christendom,  and  displacing  a  civilization  founded 
and  consummated  on  the  teachings  of  Christ,  can  any  greater  danger  to  the  world, 
God's  people,  be  imagined  by  Christian  men?  That  such  a  consummation 
could  ever  be  realized  our  reliance  in  the  Divine  Power  leads  us  to  pronounce 
impossible,  but  in  the  meantime  the  efforts  to  produce  that  impossible  result  are 
capable  of  producing  incalculable  harm. 

"  There  is  no  need  to  antagonize  or  disparage  secular  education,  as  such  ;  and 
so  long  as  it  confines  itself  to  its  own  proper  sphere.  But  Christianity  must 
work  and  teach  and  show  that  education  without  Christian  principle  is  insufficient, 
ineffectual  and  incapable  of  producing  the  best  results. 

"  But  purely  material  knowledge  may  prepare  the  way  for  that  higher  and 
fuller  education  which  can  only  be  attained  by  the  inclusion  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  truths  of  Christianity. 

"  Secularization  of  education  in  China  should  therefore  stimulate  rather  than 
discourage  the  Diffusion  of  General  Knowledge  on  a  Christian  basis.     Workers, 


The  Boxer  Uprising  593 

ways  of  God  the  regeneration  of  China.  The  awful  wreckage  of  the 
Boxer  upheaval  and  the  legacy  of  distrust  and  hatred  which  the 
Western  nations  have  left  behind  them  in  China,  and  all  the  venomous 
opposition  to  missions  displayed  at  home,  and  difficulties  never  so 
many  and  so  great,  will  not  dismay  or  deter  the  missionary  in  his 
work,  or  permanently  defer  the  successful  accomplishment  of  his  task. 
"  As  heretofore,"  said  President  McKinley  in  his  inaugural  address 
on  March  4,  1900,  "so  hereafter  will  the  nation  demonstrate  its 
fitness  to  administer  any  new  estate  which  events  devolve  upon  it, 
and  in  the  fear  of  God,  will  '  take  occasion  by  the  hand  and  make 
the  bounds  of  freedom  wider  yet.'  If  there  are  those  among  us  who 
would  make  our  way  more  difficult,  we  must  not  be  disheartened, 
but  the  more  earnestly  dedicate  ourselves  to  the  task  upon  which 
we  have  rightly  entered.     The  path  of  progress  is  seldom  smooth. 

helpers  and  supporters,  friends  in  China  and  out  of  it,  should  realize  that  the 
more  the  work  of  the  non-Christian  schoolmaster  is  extended  the  more  the  Chris- 
tian teacher  needs  to  be  in  evidence.  Japan  has  realized  that  Christianity  should 
be  free  and  she  has  not  discouraged  it  as  a  teacher :  she  has  only  dreaded  it  and 
faced  it  as  a  political  force.  Therefore  the  prospect  of  a  possible  Asiatic  com- 
bination under  Japanese  direction  need  not  necessarily  be  a  cause  for  despondency, 
as  far  as  the  work  of  our  Society  is  concerned.  The  principle  of  opportunism, 
which  is  now  such  a  controlling  force  in  national  policy,  is  quite  sufficient  to 
account,  at  the  moment,  for  a  rapprochement  of  the  two  countries,  growing  out 
of  mutual  irritation  against  European  encroachments,  not  sentimental  but  real, 
which  each  feels  bound  to  resist. 

"  The  Japanese  have  outstripped  all  others  in  utilizing  the  press  to  direct 
public  opinion,  for  they  have  newspapers  in  Pekin,  Tientsin,  Shanghai  and  else- 
where, all  in  the  Chinese  language,  not  only  giving  their  own  views  of  Japan, 
but  also  of  Western  civilization,  which  could  hardly  be  expected  to  quite  coin- 
cide with  ours.  Besides  this,  the  Chinese  Reformers  have  split  up  into  parties 
and  one  of  these,  an  extreme  section  consisting  for  the  most  part  of  men 
educated  in  Japan,  or  in  some  Anglo-Chinese  school  in  China,  or  whose 
knowledge  has  been  acquired  from  translations  of  Western  books,  singles  out 
revolutionary  periods  of  history  for  study  and  has  its  views  published  widely,  de- 
claring that  Bismarck  routed  Christianity  politically,  and  Darwin  scientifically, 
and  that  Anglo  Saxon  civilization  is  only  fifty  years  old,  etc.  The  avowed  object 
of  one  powerful  and  fast  growing  section  of  the  press  is  to  develop  the  new  factor 
in  world  politics  commenced  a  few  years  ago.  It  is  not  the  development  of  a 
merely  Sino- Japanese  but  an  Asiatic  League  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  them- 
selves from  what  they  consider  the  white  peril  from  Europe  and  America.  This 
is  a  movement  whose  importance  it  is  difficult  to  overestimate.  All  the  friends 
of  China  and  of  the  West  should  exert  themselves  so  that  this  league  shall  be 
for  the  good  of  all  and  the  injury  of  none.  This  shows  the  need  of  more  fully 
presenting  true  Christianity — the  kingdom  of  God,  which  unites  all  the  good 
against  all  the  bad,  and  utilizes  the  best  knowledge  in  all  departments  of  life 
for  the  good  of  all  men  "  (Sixteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  Dif- 
fusion of  Christian  and  General  Knowledge  Among  the  Chinese,  igoj,  pp.  6-8, 
14). 


594  Missions  and  Modern   History- 

New  things  are  often  hard  to  do.  Our  fathers  found  them  so.  We 
find  them  so.  They  are  inconvenient.  They  cost  us  something. 
But  are  we  not  made  better  for  the  effort  and  sacrifice  ?  And  are 
not  those  we  serve  lifted  and  blessed?"  If  that  is  the  spirit  in 
which  a  state  should  face  its  duty  and  do  its  work,  he  is  ignorant 
alike  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  of  the  heart  of  man,  and  of  what  the  Spirit 
of  God  has  done  in  human  history  and  in  human  hearts,  who  does 
not  perceive  that  the  Boxer  Uprising,  with  all  that  it  involved  and 
entailed,  was  a  challenge  to  the  Christian  Church  which  she  can  pass 
by  only  at  the  sacrifice  of  her  life. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav 


XII 
THE  COMING  OF  THE  SLAV 

"  f  ■  ^\HE  Latin  and  the  Teutonic  races  have  had  their  day, 
and  they  have  failed  to  establish  a  truly  Christian  civili- 
■  zation.  They  have  done  great  things  in  the  organization 
of  society,  in  the  development  of  material  wealth,  in  literature,  art, 
and  science,  and  especially  in  recognizing  and  securing  in  some  de- 
gree the  rights  of  the  individual  man  ;  but  they  have  exalted  the 
material  above  the  spiritual,  and  made  Mammon  their  God.  They 
have  lost  the  nobler  aspirations  of  youth,  and  are  governed  now  by 
the  sordid  calculations  of  old  age.  We  wait  the  coming  of  the 
Slav  to  regenerate  Europe,  establish  the  principle  of  universal  broth- 
erhood and  the  kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth. 

"  This  is  the  substance  of  an  address  delivered  not  long  ago  by  a 
young  Slav.  If  it  were  the  fancy  of  a  single  brain,  it  would  not  be 
worth  noticing ;  but  as  it  is,  in  fact,  the  dream  of  more  than  a  hun- 
dred million  brains  in  Europe,  it  has  some  interest  for  those  who  are 
to  be  regenerated  by  the  coming  of  the  Slav." 

Ex-President  Washburn  of  Robert  College,  begins  with  these 
words  an  article  in  The  Contemporary  Revieiv  for  January,  1898, 
bearing  the  title  borrowed  for  this  chapter.  This  Russian  dream  is 
not  altogether  new.  In  some  degree  Russians  have  dreamed  it  for 
centuries.  It  was  in  the  background  of  the  thought  of  Peter  the 
Great.  "  He  loved  Russia,"  says  Kostomaroff,  "  loved  the  Russian 
people ;  loved  it  not  in  the  sense  of  the  mass  of  Russians  contem- 
porary with  and  subject  to  himself,  but  in  the  sense  of  that  ideal  to 
which  he  wished  to  bring  the  people.  .  .  .  On  account  of  Peter's 
love  of  the  ideal  of  the  Russian  people,  a  Russian  will  love  Peter  as 
long  as  he  does  not  himself  lose  this  national  ideal."1  But  old  as 
the  ideal  of  a  great  Russian  nationality  is,  the  conception  of  a  vast 

1  Boulger,  Central  Asian  Questions,  pp.  45f. 

597 


598  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

racial  mission,  taking  up  the  work  which  Latin  and  Teuton  have 
wrought  upon,  and  over  which  they  have  failed,  finding  a  track 
through  the  tangle  of  conflicting  rights  and  interests,  of  transient  and 
abiding  issues,  solving  the  oldest  of  all  problems, — the  problem  of  a 
unified  and  stable  government  in  Asia, — this  conception  has  been 
born  almost  in  our  own  day  and  gathers  strength  year  by  year.  In- 
deed, this  conception  is  the  development  rather  of  the  spirit  which 
opposed  Peter  the  Great  than  of  his  spirit.  He  sought  to  bring  Rus- 
sia into  contact  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  present  spirit  seeks 
to  make  Russia  great  as  he  sought,  but  draws  a  line  of  division  be- 
tween Russia  and  its  spirit,  its  aims  and  its  divine  mission,  and  the 
spirit,  aims  and  achievements  of  other  peoples.  As  Dostoievski  says 
in  one  of  his  novels  :  "  Russia  has  the  genius  of  all  nations  and  Rus- 
sian genius  in  addition.  We  can  understand  all  nations,  but  no 
other  nation  can  understand  us."  J     And  the  poet  Tuchef  writes  : 

"  No  man  can  comprehend  Russia  with  his  reason  ; 
It  is  only  necessary  to  believe  in  Russia." 

Half  a  century  ago  this  new  thought  of  Russia's  destiny  received 
special  emphasis  from  the  Slavophile  movement.  The  Slavophiles 
condemned  Peter's  attempt  to  Westernize  Russia.  The  nation  had  a 
great  and  original  mission  of  its  own,  they  argued.  "  Western 
Europe,"  wrote  Prince  Odoefski,  "presents  a  strange,  saddening 
spectacle.  Opinion  struggles  against  opinion,  power  against  power, 
throne  against  throne.  Science,  art,  and  religion,  the  three  chief 
motors  of  social  life,  have  lost  their  force.  We  venture  to  make  an 
assertion  which  to  many  at  present  may  seem  strange,  but  which  will 
be  in  a  few  years  only  too  evident :  Western  Europe  is  on  the  high  road 
to  ruin  !  We,  however,  are  young  and  fresh,  and  have  taken  no 
part  in  the  crimes  of  Europe.  We  have  a  great  mission  to  fulfill. 
Our  name  is  already  inscribed  on  the  tablets  of  victory,  and  now  we 
have  to  inscribe  our  spirit  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind.  A 
higher  kind  of  victory — the  victory  of  science,  art,  and  faith — awaits 
us  on  the  ruins  of  tottering  Europe  !  "*  The  Slavophile  party  was 
merely  a  small  literary  faction,  but  its  influence  was  immense,  and 
the  Panslavist  idea  for  which  it  contended,  has  now  become  the  dom- 

1  Quoted  by  Dr.  Washburn  in  his  article. 
'Wallace,  Russia,  p.  415. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  599 

inant  principle  of  Russia's  thought  and  activity.  The  whole  Slav 
race  has  a  distinct  mission,  and  Russia  is  the  divine  agent  for  the 
realization  of  the  mission.  The  way  in  which  thus  far  this  mission 
has  slowly  but  irresistibly  unfolded  is  the  admiration  and  despair  of 
many  European  statesmen.  "  There  is  one  signal  quality  which  I 
especially  admire  in  the  policy  of  Russia,"  says  Lord  Roseberry.  "  It 
is  practically  unaffected  by  the  life  of  man  or  the  lapse  of  time — it 
moves  as  it  were,  by  its  own  impulse  ;  it  is  silent,  concentrated,  per- 
petual and  unbroken;  it  is,  therefore,  successful."  '  The  Russians 
have  seen  in  this  only  the  certainty  of  destiny.  It  has  been  the  will 
of  God  that  has  been  unfolding  their  history  and  passing  into  their 
hands  the  control  of  Asia  and  the  leadership  of  the  world. 

It  is  intensely  interesting  to  see  two  races  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
world  holding  practically  the  same  views  as  to  their  relations  to 
Western  civilization  and  the  future  of  Asia.  The  Japanese  have 
dreamed  the  same  dream  as  the  Slavs.  They,  too,  have  the  secrets 
of  social  ideal  and  institution  which  will  solve  the  political  and  in- 
dustrial problems  which  the  West  has  failed  to  solve.  They,  too, 
are  Asiatic  and  alone  able  to  understand  and  govern  the  Asiatic 
peoples.  They,  too,  are  young  and  fresh,  a  new  race  ready  to  take 
up  the  task  of  civilization  where  the  West  has  been  forced  to  lay  it 
down.  The  jealousy  of  these  two  peoples  rests  on  the  consciousness 
of  a  direct  antagonism,  a  radical  hostility  of  racial  ambitions.  We  are 
concerned  here,  however,  only  with  Russia,  and  we  cannot  conceive 
too  strongly  its  sense  of  racial  distinction  and  of  national  mission. 
Russians  speak  of  "Russia  and  Europe,"  separating  their  own 
nation  and  grouping  the  others.  They  see  in  themselves  a  new  nation 
just  arising ;  in  others,  old  nations  ending  in  failure  more  or  less  com- 
plete. In  his  Reflections  of  a  Russian  Statesman,  Pobedonostseff, 
the  Procurator  of  the  Synod,  the  administrative  head  of  the 
Greek  Orthodox  Church,  argues  that  Western  civilization  is  diseased 
and  doomed.  "Basing  his  case  on  the  growth  of  anarchy  and  infi- 
delity and  the  increasing  strength  of  the  dissolvent  forces  which  are 
attacking  individualistic  societies,  he  holds  that  social  existence  can- 
not successfully  withstand  the  corroding  influence  of  these  tendencies, 
and  affirms  his  belief  that  the  torch  of  civilization  has  passed  to  Rus- 
sia.    The  elements  which  in  his  eyes  make  Russia  great   and   are 

1  Questions  of  Empire,  p.  27. 


600  Missions  and  Modern  History 

bound  to  make  her  the  saviour  of  the  world  are  autocracy,  religion, 
and  the  village  community,  the  last  named  being,  to  his  mind,  the 
best  antidote  to  socialistic  agitation,  since  it  contains  within  itself  all 
that  is  reasonable  and  healthy  in  the  socialistic  propaganda.  The 
religious  reverence  of  the  Russian  masses  is  the  great  force  that 
holds  society  together,  while  the  autocratic  power  of  the  Czar  pro- 
vides the  state  with  a  means  of  quick  and  effective  action.  Unity, 
harmony,  subordination,  reverence,  and  simplicity  are  to  him  the 
watchwords  of  Russian  civilization."  '  Pobedonostseff's  view  of 
religion  as  a  political  utility  and  the  frank  avowals  he  makes  of  the 
anti-progressive  character  of  Russian  Government  are  sufficiently  set 
forth  in  these  quotations  from  his  book  : 

"  However  powerful  the  State  may  be,  its  power  is  based  alone 
upon  identity  of  religious  profession  with  the  people ;  the  faith  of 
the  people  sustains  it;  when  discord  once  appears  to  weaken  this 
identity,  its  foundations  are  sapped,  its  power  dissolves  away.  In 
spiritual  sympathy  with  its  rulers  a  people  may  bear  many  heavy  bur- 
dens, may  concede  much,  and  surrender  many  of  its  privileges  and 
rights.     .     .     .2 

"Among  the  falsest  of  political  principles  is  the  principle  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  the  principle  that  all  power  issues  from 
the  people,  and  is  based  upon  the  national  will — a  principle  which 
has  unhappily  become  more  firmly  established  since  the  time  of  the 
French  Revolution.  Thence  proceeds  the  theory  of  Parliamentarism, 
which,  up  to  the  present  day,  has  deluded  much  of  the  so-called  '  in- 
telligence,' and  unhappily  infatuated  certain  foolish  Russians.  It 
continues  to  maintain  its  hold  on  many  minds  with  the  obstinacy  of 
a  narrow  fanaticism,  although  every  day  its  falsehood  is  exposed 
more  clearly  to  the  world.     .     .     .s 

"  It  is  terrible  to  think  of  our  condition  if  destiny  had  sent  us 
the  fatal  gift — an  All-Russian  Parliament  !  But  that  will  never 
be.     .     .     .* 

"  The  arguments  most  effective  on  the  mass  are  not  the  most  sym- 
metrical— the  most  truly  taken  from  the  nature  of  things,  but  those 
expressed  in  sounding  words  and  phrases,  artfully  selected,  constantly 

1  Reinsch,   World  Politics,  pp.  2l2f. 

8  Pobedonostseff,  Reflections  of  a  Russian  Statesman,  p.  I. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  32. 

•  Ibid.,  p.  49. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  601 

reiterated,  and  calculated  on  the  instinct  of  baseness  always   dom- 
inant in  the  people.     .     .     .' 

"  By  nature,  men  are  divided  into  two  classes — those  who  tolerate 
no  power  above  them,  and  therefore  of  necessity  strive  to  rule  others  ; 
and  those  who  by  their  nature  dread  the  responsibility  inseparable 
from  independent  action,  and  who  shrink  from  any  resolute  exercise 
of  will.     .     .     .* 

"The  Liberal  Democracy  triumphs,  bringing  into  society  disorder 
and  violence  with  the  principles  of  infidelity  and  materialism,  and 
proclaiming  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity — where  there  is  place 
neither  for  liberty  nor  for  equality.  Such  conditions  inevitably  lead 
to  anarchy,  from  which  society  can  be  saved  alone  by  dictatorship — 
that  is,  by  the  rehabilitation  of  autocracy  in  the  government  of  the 
world.     .     .     .3 

"  In  the  popular  opinion  the  apostles  of  reform  are  the  apostles  of 
improvement,  or,  as  we  say,  progress;  while  on  the  other  hand, 
those  who  question  the  need  or  utility  of  reform  upon  new  principles 
are  enemies  of  progress,  enemies  of  advancement,  enemies  almost  of 
good,  of  justice,  and  of  civilization.  In  this  opinion,  so  widely  dis- 
seminated by  our  publicists,  there  is  a  great  error  and  delusion."  i 

Pobedonostseff  represents  the  extreme  view.  There  is  far  more 
liberalism  in  Russia  than  he  has  ever  displayed  ;  but  his  conviction 
of  the  separateness  of  Russia  and  of  the  uniqueness  of  her  mission 
is  the  controlling  principle  in  Russian  politics.  And  this  is  no  pass- 
ing fancy.  The  chasm  between  Russia  and  the  West  is  believed  by 
the  best  observers  to  be  steadily  widening.  "As  the  race  becomes 
more  united,  more  enlightened  and  more  self-conscious,  it  will  be  less 
likely  to  yield  to  Western  influences.  This  is  already  manifest  in 
Russia.  It  is  more  Russian  to-day  than  it  was  in  the  time  of  Alex- 
ander II,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  happy  disappearance  of 
Pobedonostseff  from  the  front,  or  in  the  more  liberal  acts  of  the  pres- 
ent Czar,  which  is  inconsistent  with  a  still  more  distinctively  Slavic 
development.  Russia  is  every  year  less  dependent  upon  the  West,  in- 
tellectually as  well  as  politically  and  commercially."  5  And  as  has  been 

1  Pobedonostseff,  Reflections  of  a  Russian  Statesman,  p.  41. 
* Ibid.,  p.  42.  3  Ibid.,  p.  54.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  1  171. 

5  Washburn,  Contemporary  Review,  January,  1898,  pp.  I2f.  Pobedonostseff 
has  reappeared  at  the  front  since  1898. 


C)02  Missions  and  Modern  History 

clearly  enough  indicated,  this  Russian  separateness  is  conceived  by 
the  Slav  to  be  part  of  the  destiny  of  his  race,  which  is  to  be  sufficient 
to  itself  and  supreme  over  others. 

The  facts  of  Russian  history  have  gone  far  to  justify  these  ambitions. 
Consider  first  the  territorial  growth  from  the  time  of  Ivan  IV,  at  the 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth. 
During  Ivan's  reign,  Kazan,  Astrakhan,  the  territory  of  the  Don  Cos- 
sacks and  Siberia  were  annexed.  Peter  added  parts  of  Finland, 
Esthonia  and  Livonia,  and  the  conquests  on  the  Caspian  began.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Southern  Finland,  Azov, 
Kertch,  Yenikale,  Kinburn,  part  of  Poland,  Courland  and  the  Crimea 
were  added.  In  the  nineteenth  century  the  present  limits  of  Russia  in 
Europe  were  filled  out.  The  rest  of  Finland  was  ceded  to  Russia  by 
the  peace  of  Frederick  Shamm  in  1809.  The  duchy  of  Warsaw  was 
annexed  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in  18 14.  By  the  peace  of  Adrian  - 
ople  in  1829,  and  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878,  robbing  Russia  of 
part  of  the  fruits  of  her  war  with  Turkey,  as  Russia,  Germany  and 
France  later  robbed  Japan  of  the  results  of  her  war  with  China,  Rus- 
sia gained  the  rest  of  what  she  now  holds  in  Europe.1  But  these  ter- 
ritorial gains  in  Europe  mark  the  least  part  of  the  advance.  The 
great  expansion  has  been  eastward  into  Asia.  The  Russian  bound- 
ary has  been  carried  south  of  the  Caucasus  to  the  Aras  River  at  the 
expense  of  Turkey  and  Persia  ;  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  it  has  ab- 
sorbed the  whole  of  Central  Asia  to  the  Persian  frontier  and  the 
northern  boundary  of  Afghanistan,  and  in  1891  by  the  absorption  of 
the  Pamirs  or  "roof  of  the  world,"  the  Chinese  soldiers  obediently 
withdrawing,  Russian  territory  adjoined  India  on  the  Hindu-Kush 
mountains  between  Afghanistan  and  China.  And  a  correspondent 
of  the  London  Daily  Graphic,  recently  reported  Dorshieff,  the  chief 
Legate  of  a  Russian  Minister  to  Thibet,  assaying,  "  One  of  these 
days  our  Consul-General  in  Kashgar  will  probably  be  replaced  by  a 
Russian  Governor-General ;  that  is  when  that  outlying  region  of 
Chinese  Turkestan  has  been  incorporated  with  Russian  Turkestan." 
The  correspondent  reports  that  he  asked  an  official  if  Prince 
Ukhtomsky's  categorical  disclaimers  with  regard  to  Russia's  assum- 

1  Latimer,  Russia  and  Turkey  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, passim  ;  Curtis,  The 
Turk  and  the  Lost  Provinces,  pp.  6,  14,  16  ;  Muller,  J'olitical  History  of  Recent 
Times,  pp.  550-552. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  603 

ing  a  protectorate  over  Thibet  might  be  accepted  as  authoritative. 
This  was  before  Younghusband's  expedition.  "  For  the  time  being, 
yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  but  you  must  not  take  these  disclaimers  too  liter- 
ally. They  are  always  open  to  the  qualification  of  possible  circum- 
stances. ' '  All  things  in  their  time.  No  one  can  appreciate  the  immense 
change  that  has  taken  place  in  Central  Asia  who  will  not  examine  the 
old  and  the  new  maps,  and  read  also  some  account  of  old  conditions, 
such  as  Arminius  Vambery's  Life  and  Adventures,  or  Burnby's  Ride 
to  Khiva,  and  consider  also  the  feats  of  the  Russians  as  railroad  builders 
and  establishers  of  order  in  this  wildest  and  most  lawless  part  of  the 
world.  "So  isolated  was  the  region  through  which  I  travelled  in 
1863,"  says  Vambery,  "that  on  my  return  the  Shah  of  Persia  and  his 
ministers  made  the  most  anxious  inquiries  of  me, — Central  Asia  seemed 
to  them  to  be  as  unknown  as  Japan  or  China.  .  .  .  Boundless  is 
my  wonder  when  I  consider  the  changes."  x  Vambery  travelled  in  a 
pannier  slung  on  a  camel's  back,  with  a  buffalo  calf  on  the  other  side  to 
balance  him,  and  the  country  was  cursed  by  the  trade  in  slaves,  the 
tents  of  the  Turkomans  being  full  of  them.  The  domestic  slaves  were 
pegged  down  at  night  by  collars  which  they  wore.  Now  the  Russian 
Trans-Caspian  railroad  runs  through  Merv,  Bokhara  and  Samarcand 
to  Tashkend,  and  on  to  within  two  hundred  miles  of  Kashgar,  across 
the  valleys  of  the  Oxus  and  the  Jaxartes,  while  a  branch  runs  south 
from  Merv  to  Kushk  Post  on  the  border  of  Afghanistan,  a  hundred 
miles  north  of  Herat."  With  no  fuss,  unopposed  by  Europe,  Russia 
has  quietly  absorbed  this  great  region,  introducing  order,  means  of 
communication,  and  a  measure  of  civilization.  The  change  has 
been  enormous,  but  the  fact  that  it  has  come  as  it  has,  indicates  the 
immense  transformation  in  Russia's  favour  which  the  Asiatic  problem 
has  undergone.  "  I  will  only  say  one  word  in  conclusion,"  wrote 
Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  in  1875,  "  tnat  *  counsel  nothing  rash  or  pre- 
mature. If  Russia  remained  encamped  on  the  Caspian,  we  should 
not,  of  course,  leave  the  valley  of  the  Indus.  So  long  as  she  held 
aloof  from  Merv,  we  should  hold  aloof  from  Herat ;  but  if  she  de- 
liberately threw  down  the  gauntlet,  she  must  expect  it  to  be  taken  up. 
We  could  not,  as  the  guardians  of  the  interests  of  India,  permit  her, 
on  the  pretext  of  curbing  the  Turkomans  or  establishing  a  trade  route 

1  Latimer,  Russia  and  Turkey  in  Europe  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  320. 

2  Norman,  Alt  the  Russias,  Ch.  XVI. 


604  Missions  and  Modern  History 

through  Asia,  to  take  up  a  position  unopposed  on  the  Murghab, 
which  would  compromise  the  safety  of  Herat.  That  city  is  both 
strategically  and  politically  an  indispensable  bulwark  of  India,  and 
we  cannot  and  will  not  allow  its  future  fate  to  be  at  the  disposition  of 
a  foreign  power."  '  "  Herat,"  he  declared,  "  must  be  secured  against 
Russian  occupation  at  all  hazards,  even  though  it  should  be  neces- 
sary to  march  a  force  from  India  for  its  protection."  3  From  time 
to  time  England  has  been  excited  over  the  cry,  "the  Russians  at  the 
Gates  of  Herat."  But  they  are  there,  on  the  very  door-step,  with 
material  piled  up  at  Kushk  Post  for  a  narrow  guage  road  to  the  city 
whenever  they  desire  to  enter,  and  England  is  hundreds  of  miles 
away,  over  almost  impassible  mountains. s 

In  eastern  Asia  the  steady  and  unresisting  advance  of  Russia  has 
been  almost  as  remarkable.  By  the  treaty  of  Aigun  in  1858  Russia 
gained  from  China  all  of  the  territory  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Amur,  and  also  east  of  the  Usuri.  This  gave  Russia  the  port  of 
Vladivostok.  The  territory  south  of  the  Amur  and  west  of  the 
Usuri,  China  retained.  This  is  the  province  of  Manchuria. 
Into  the  territory  added  to  Russia,  in  the  next  forty  years  350,000 
Russian  settlers  came.  By  the  treaty  of  1896,  the  Russians  com- 
pleted the  destruction  of  England's  influence  with  China,  acquired 
Port  Arthur  in  Manchuria  as  a  naval  station,  and  the  right  to  build 
the  Chinese  Eastern  Railroad  through  Manchurian  territory.  Later 
developments  seemed  to  be  passing  the  whole  great  province  of  Man- 
churia into  the  hands  of  Russia,  and  bringing  Peking  under  Russian 
military  control  as  truly  as  Herat,  when  the  war  with  Japan  intro- 
duced new  elements  into  the  problem,  the  significance  of  which  we 
as  yet  only  partially  perceive.* 

Meanwhile,  Russia  had  solidified  her  vast  Empire  of  Sibera  north 
of  these  acquisitions  in  Central  and  Eastern  Asia,  also  at  China's  ex- 
pense.5    "You  could  take,"  says  Mr.   Kennan,  "  the  whole  of  the 

1  Rawlinson,  England  and  Russia  in  the  East,  p.  365. 

'•>  Ibid.,  p.  viii. 

3  Contemporary  Revie-d<,  February,  1897,  pp.  1540,  Art.  "  Russia  and  England 
Down  the  Long  Avenue." 

•■See  Professor  Wright's  article,  "The  Russian  Problem  in  Manchuria  "  in 
'I'he  Review  of  Reviews,  July,  1901  ;  Leroy  Beaulieu,  The  Awakening  of  the. 
East,  Part  II,  Ch.  X  ;  Contemporary  Review,  February,  1897,  pp.  153-183,  Arts., 
"  Russia  and  England,"  "  Secret  History  of  the  Russo-Chinese  Treaty." 

8  Boulger,  Central  Asian  Questions,  Ch.  XIII. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  605 

United  States,  from  Maine  to  California,  from  Lake  Superior  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  set  it  down  in  the  middle  of  Siberia  without 
touching  its  borders.  You  could  then  take  Alaska,  and  all  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  except  Russia,  and  fit  them  in,  like  pieces  of  a  dis- 
sected map,  round  the  edges  of  the  United  States  as  it  lay  in  the  mid- 
dle of  Siberia,  and  you  would  still  have  left  more  than  three  hundred 
thousand  square  miles  of  Siberian  territory."1  Through  this  great 
region  Russia  has  built  the  greatest  railway  in  the  world,  4,000  miles 
from  the  Ural  to  the  sea,  at  a  total  estimated  cost  of  ^80,000, ooo.'2 

These,  however,  are  bare  facts.  What  has  been  the  spirit,  the 
underlying  motive  of  all  this  great  development,  great,  whatever  its 
limitations  may  be  shown  to  be  ?  The  thing  that  is  of  chief  interest 
to  us  is  the  Russian  view.3  This  has  been  eloquently  presented  by 
Vladimir  Holmstrem,  political  leader-writer  of  the  St.  Petersburg 
Viedomosti,  of  whose  article  Prince  Ukhtomsky  says:  "Mr. 
Holmstrem  has  faithfully  expressed  the  ideas  I  have  always  held  on 
the  subject:  " 

"  Prince  Ukhtomsky,  in  his  book  on  the  present  Czar's  journey  to  the  East, 
describes  with  his  usual  power  and  grip  of  significant  detail,  how,  on  nearing  a 
Cossack  settlement  on  the  great  Amur  River,  above  the  town  of  Blagovesh- 
tchensk,  the  Imperial  party  in  their  steamer  passed  a  high  rock  with  a  huge  iron- 
bound  wooden  cross  on  it,  painted  white  and  bearing  the  inscription  :  '  Power 
lies  not  in  strength,  but  in  love.'1 

"  This  cross,  erected  long  ago  by  some  person  unknown,  and  since  repaired  by 
some  local  officials  in  the  far  Amur  territory,  stands  on  the  very  boundary  be- 
tween Russia  and  China  (the  Amur  district  is  coterminous  with  the  latter  State, 
the  boundary  line  following  the  river),  and  overlooks  the  country  towards  the 
Celestial  Empire  for  a  distance  of  twenty-seven  versts,  or  eighteen  English  miles. 
The  words  inscribed  upon  the  cross  were  placed  there  when  it  was  last  repaired, 
and  are  attributed  to  the  present  Governor-General  of  the  territory,  Baron 
von  Korff. 

«  This  sentence  and  the  quotation  from  Prince  Ukhtomsky  are  characteristic 
as  indicating  the  spirit  of  Russian  conquest  in  Asia;  they  give  the  key  to  the 
enigma  of  Russia's  wonderful  progress  across  the  Asiatic  Continent. 

"  Without  going  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  unselfish  Christian  love  was  the 
sole  motive  power  that  actuated  the  Russians  in  Asia,  we  are  bound  to  admit 
that   Russian  conquest    was    rendered   easy   by  the   feeling   of  solidarity  which 

'  Latimer,  Russia  ami  Turkey  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  304. 

2  Leroy  Beaulieu,  The  Awakening  of  the  East,  Part  I,  Ch.  IX  ;  Norman,  All 
the  Russias,  Ch.  VII. 

3  Beveridge,  The  Russian  Advance,  Ch.  XXV. 


606  Missions  and  Modern  History 

always  existed  in  a  latent  state  between  the  natives  and  their  conquerors,  and 
often  animated  the  latter  with  a  half-conscious  inclination  in  favour  of  the  con- 
quered. There  were  three  forces  operating  on  the  Russian  side  in  Asia: 
(I)  the  Cossacks  from  the  rivers  Don  and  Ural  (in  European  Russia),  who  have 
a  considerable  admixture  of  Tartar  and  Kalmuck  blood  in  their  veins,  as  have 
the  Russians  generally ;  (2)  the  Russian  peasant  settlers,  and  (3)  the  dissenters 
from  the  Orthodox  Church  (the  '  raskolriki ' )— none  of  whom  represent  a  con- 
quering force  in  the  military  sense  of  the  word,  but  rather  a  civilizing  force, 
with  an  enormous  power  of  assimilation,  there  being  no  great  gulf  between  the 
stages  of  civilization  represented  by  the  Russian  agriculturist  and  the  nomad 
cattle-breeding  native.  Action  on  the  part  of  the  Government  was  always  tardy 
and  casual,  the  Czars  in  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg  sanctioning  against  their 
will  the  conquests  made  by  their  hardy  subjects,  whose  exploits  were  often 
rewarded  with  disfavour.  Nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  exile  system  has  been 
working  all  this  time  with  any  marked  success ;  voluntary  exiles  have  greatly 
outnumbered  the  involuntary  ones  in  the  history  of  Siberia's  consolidation  into  a 
Russian  dependency,  and  the  colonization  of  Russian  Central  Asia  has  gone  on 
without  any  aid  from  the  exile  system. 

"  American  readers  are  eager  to  know  what  is  the  history  of  the  extension  of 
Russia's  dominion  in  Asia.  They  imagine  this  history  as  rich  in  picturesque 
details  and  glorious  battles  as  the  progress  of  Napoleon  through  Europe.  My 
readers  will  be  disappointed  to  learn  that  the  work  of  the  Russians  in  Asia  has 
been  a  long  record  of  toil  and  voluntary  privation,  rich  in  self-sacrifice,  rarely 
acknowledged  and  never  recompensed.  With  some  exceptions,  the  very  names 
of  these  patriotic  toilers  in  Asia  say  nothing  to  the  average  Russian,  and  are  not 
held  up  to  public  admiration  in  schools  and  school  books.  Russian  patriotism, 
as  found  in  the  masses,  is  an  intense  inward  glow,  rarely  assuming  any  outward 
aspect  and  only  encouraging  to  self-sacrifice  and  labour ;  it  is  the  reserve  force 
of  a  people  thoroughly  Christian  in  its  peaceful  disposition,  whom  yet  it  is  not 
well  for  its  enemy  to  rouse  from  its  lethargy. 

"  The  growth  of  Russian  dominion  in  Asia  has  been  parallel  with  that  of 
Russia  herself  as  a  State.  Asia  was  awakened  and  brought  to  life  together  with 
our  own  awakening.  This  alone  illustrates  the  truth  of  the  saying  that  Russia 
is  essentially  an  Asiatic  country ;  her  destiny  is  closely  connected  with  that  of 
Asia,  and  therein  lies  the  main  source  of  our  predominance  in  that  continent. 
From  time  immemorial  Russia  has  lived  a  common  life  with  the  nations  and 
races  that  people  the  neighbouring  continent  which  along  its  western  frontier 
joins  on  everywhere  to  the  great  Slavonic  Empire,  with  no  natural  boundary 
between  them  worth  speaking  of.  The  Ural  Mountains  are  of  no  importance  as 
a  natural  barrier  against  an  invasion,  while  south  of  them  lies  the  great  plain 
between  the  hill  country  and  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  great  road  usually  followed 
by  the  races  that  invaded  Europe  during  the  first  thousand  years  of  our  era.  All 
the  countless  evolutions,  formations  and  destructions  of  the  Asiatic  khanates, 
kingdoms  and  empires  have  always  had  a  contrecoup  in  Russia,  have  called  forth 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  607 

corresponding  movements  in  that  great  neighbouring  State,  which  was  also  in 
process  of  formation.  Not  only  did  the  mighty  Empires  of  the  Turks,  Tungus, 
Mongols,  Chinese  and  Tartars  exercise  an  influence  on  Russia,  often  in  the  days 
of  their  prosperity  sending  forth  hordes  of  barbarians  to  the  plains  of  Russia, 
not  only  did  they  exercise  direct  pressure  on  the  Slav  population  of  the  east  of 
Europe,  but  also  the  internal  strife  in  Asia  and  the  quarrels  of  her  various  races 
made  themselves  indirectly  felt  in  Russia.  Tenders  of  friendship  were  often 
made  to  the  Czars  of  Moscow  by  the  weaker  party ;  Asiatic  rulers  often  put 
themselves  under  Russian  protection  and  so  indirectly  invited  the  Slav  Empire 
to  take  part  in  their  strife,  made  Russia's  name  popular  and  her  influence  power- 
ful in  Asia.  These  facts  of  close  intercourse  between  the  Slavs  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  Asiatic  races  on  the  other  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  order  to  understand 
the  nature  of  that  firm  grasp  in  which  Russia  holds  the  various  populations  on 
the  Asiatic  continent.  « Russia  is  at  home  in  Asia  '  is  Prince  Ukhtomsky's 
famous  utterance,  and  it  is  this  conviction,  based  on  historical  and  ethnological 
data,  that  forms  the  corner-stone  of  the  Prince's  conception  of  Russia's  Asiatic 

policy.     .     .     . 

"  Russia's  progress  through  Asia  has  been  nothing  else  than  the  consolidation 
by  means  of  true  civilization  and  organized  thought,  properly  expressed  in 
institutions,  of  a  vast  empire  peopled  by  races  of  common  origin — i.  e.,  common 
ideals,  inclinations  and  creeds.  This  word  « creed '  must  not  be  taken  in  the 
sense  of  religion,  but  in  the  wider  application  of  the  word,  as  indicating  a  com- 
mon speculative  tendency.  The  Russians  came  out  of  Asia.  Never  during  the 
thousand  years  of  their  existence  did  they  cease  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Asiatic  Continent,  and  having  begun,  under  the  impulse  of  Western 
civilization,  to  form  themselves  into  a  State,  they  gradually  proceeded  with  their 
creative  work  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Pacific,  from  one  end  of  their  world-wide 
Empire  to  the  other.  But  as  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  so  on  the  slopes  of  the 
Pacific  they  have  always  felt  themselves  at  home. 

"  What  was  the  plan  adopted  for  this  wonderful  progress  through  two  conti- 
nents? There  was  no  special  plan,  or  rather  it  developed  itself  under  the 
pressure  of  circumstances  and  the  influence  of  that  best  of  guides — instinct. 
Cossacks,  traders  and  settlers  spread  over  the  plains  of  Siberia  and  the  steppes 
of  Central  Asia  by  way  of  that  river  system  which  is  Siberia's  greatest  oppor- 
tunity and  her  best  chance  for  the  attainment  of  a  wonderful  degree  of  prosperity. 
It  was  with  great  reluctance  that  the  central  Government  followed  the  lead  of  its 
adventurous  subjects,  and  it  was  only  when  suffering  misfortune  in  the  west  and 
south  of  the  Empire  that  it  was  ready  to  pay  special  attention  to  its  eastern 
borders.  England,  by  the  way,  has  done  much  to  direct  our  steps  towards  Asia, 
especially  after  the  Crimean  campaign  and  the  Russo-Turkish  War ;  the  more 
she  hindered  our  progress  in  the  south  the  better  we  established  ourselves  in  the 
east. 

"  What,  then,  was  the  ultimate  object,  the  purpose  of  this  expansion  ? 

"  Two  sets  of  answers,  closely  connected  one  with  the  other,  may  be  given  to 


608  Missions  and  Modern  History 

this  question.  If  we  seek  for  an  explanation  in  the  history  of  the  present 
century,  rich  in  cases  of  direct  Government  action,  or  look  for  corresponding 
facts  in  the  past,  we  shall  say  that  Russia  was  always  seeking  for  an  outlet  to 
the  open  sea.  This  was  the  primary  object  of  Ivan  the  Terrible's  activity ;  the 
same  idea  animated  Peter  the  Great,  who,  according  to  tradition,  included  the 
mouth  of  the  Amur  among  the  possessions  Russia  was  in  want  of,  and  a  year 
before  his  death  expressed  a  wish  to  visit  '  Siberia  and  the  lands  of  the  Tungus 
up  to  the  Great  Wall  of  China  itself.'  Catherine  the  Great  also  acknowledged 
the  value  for  Russia  of  the  Amur  as  giving  direct  and  easy  communication  with  our 
possessions  on  the  seacoast.  The  part  played  by  Nicholas  I  with  regard  to  this 
serious  question  has  already  been  explained.  The  vital  need  of  free  access  to 
the  open  sea  has  brought  us  to  Port  Arthur,  but  the  English  occupation  of  Wei 
Hai  Wei  is  a  wanton  offense  and  a  menace  to  Russia,  while  Germany  in  Kiao- 
chou  blocks  the  way  to  the  China  seas  and  is  a  great  hindrance  to  our  commer- 
cial projects  in  the  future.  We  cannot  say,  therefore,  that  we  have  obtained  all 
that  we  are  entitled  to  by  our  destiny  and  by  the  needs  of  our  Empire.  We 
think  it  would  be  better  for  all  parties  concerned  if  it  were  otherwise. 

"  The  question  as  to  Russia's  ultimate  object  in  the  Far  East  may  be  answered 
very  favourably  for  us,  if  our  policy  be  judged  by  the  character  of  our  activity  in 
Siberia  in  the  course  of  the  last  century.  During  these  hundred  years  we  have 
devoted  ourselves  to  developing  the  inexhaustible  natural  wealth  of  Siberia,  but 
as  yet  with  no  great  success,  comparatively  speaking.  Without  swift  and  well- 
organized  means  of  communication  embracing  the  whole  of  that  vast  country 
and  welding  it  together  we  could  only  work  at  some  one  nook  or  corner  at  a 
time,  but  were  unable  to  breathe  life  into  the  whole  of  the  land.  Nevertheless, 
all  has  been  done  that  could  be  done.  This  work  of  ours  in  Siberia  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  has  been  a  record  of  achievements  in  the  domains  of  peaceful 
culture  and  promises  well  for  our  future  policy  in  Asia.  Numerous  scientific 
expeditions  of  all  kinds,  dispatched  or  aided  by  the  Government,  cross  Siberia 
in  every  direction.  Among  their  members  we  find  such  names  as  Alexander 
von  Humboldt,  the  astronomer  Fuss,  such  men  of  science  as  Lessing,  Ledebur, 
Fedoroff,  Krusenstern,  Sarrikoff,  Timkoffsky,  Baron  Wrangel,  the  Englishman 
Cottrell,  Middenhoff,  Hoffman,  Ditmar,  Muravieff  and  others,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  preceding  century,  Rumoffsky,  Grishoff,  Christian  Mayer,  Trescott,  Tchernoi, 
Pallas,  Gmelin,  Guldenstedt,  etc.  Much  attention  was  paid  by  the  Government 
to  the  internal  development  of  the  country,  and  measure  after  measure  was 
devised  for  this  purpose.  Such  highly  gifted  men  as  Speransky  gave  their  hand 
and  their  vast  experience  to  the  task.  But  nothing  of  permanent  value  could  be 
done  without  proper  railway  communication. 

"  We  are  now  in  possession  of  a  great  Empire  which  extends  from  the  Ural 
Mountains  to  the  Far  East  and  covers  an  area  of  nearly  5^1 2,000  square  miles, 
*.  e.,  about  forty-four  times  as  large  as  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  But  it  must 
be  borne  in  mtnd  that  these  figures  are  merely  approximate.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  actual   area  of  Siberia  is  unknown,  and  the  boundary  between  Siberia  and 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  609 

China  for  a  distance  of  many  miles  in  length  has  still  to  be  strictly  defined.  In 
the  interior  there  are  hundreds  of  square  miles  where  the  foot  of  man  has  never 
trod.  Half  of  the  whole  area  of  Siberia  is  covered  by  a  dense  forest,  called  the 
Taiga.  It  is  the  Siberian  jungle,  a  place  of  gloom  that  is  now  being  pierced  by 
the  iron  rails  of  the  new  line.  The  population  of  Siberia,  as  given  by  the  last 
census,  is  nearly  six  millions.  This  figure  is  composed  principally  of  peasant 
settlers.  Next  to  them  in  number  are  the  workmen  of  the  factories  and  other 
industrial  establishments.  Then  come  the  Cossacks,  half-settlers,  half-guardians 
of  the  frontier,  assisted  by  the  regular  troops  in  the  towns.  The  Cossacks  have 
vast  tracks  of  land  assigned  especially  to  them  and  sometimes  bringing  them  in 
large  profits,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  land  of  the  Orenberg  Cossacks,  south  of  the 
Ural.  Part  of  the  Cossacks  are  in  actual  service,  part  from  the  reserve ;  at  any 
moment  a  hundred  thousand  of  these  sturdy  fellows  are  ready  to  answer  to  the 
first  call  and  to  turn  up  at  the  gathering-point  in  full  equipment  on  their  swift, 
tireless  ponies.  The  Russian  Cesarewich  is  usually  the  chief  Ataman  of  all  the 
Cossack  forces,  and  Prince  Ukhtomsky,  in  his  book  on  the  present  Czar's  voyage 
to  the  East,  bears  witness  to  the  wonderful  enthusiasm  which  prevailed  among 
the  Siberian  and  the  Orenberg  Cossacks  during  the  Cesarewich's  progress 
through  their  lands.  It  was  really  an  apotheosis  of  autocracy ;  Cossacks,  settlers, 
merchants  and  peasants  mingled  together  in  one  immense  crowd,  carried  away 
by  a  single  thought,  animated  by  one  sole  desire  ;  to  offer  their  homage,  to 
express  the  love  they  bore  the  son  of  the  Czar ! 

"The  population  of  Siberia  includes  many  thousands  of  Catholics,  Protestants 
and  Jews,  and  a  greater  number  still  of  Mohammedans  and  heathens.     .     .     . 

"  In  dealing  in  its  place  with  the  question  of  the  purpose  of  Russia's  expansion 
in  Asia  I  have  said  that  there  are  two  sets  of  answers  to  be  got  on  this  point. 
In  the  first  place  I  have  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  history  of  the  past  century 
points  to  the  clearly  conceived  design  of  finding  a  way  to  the  open  sea ;  on  the 
other  hand,  Russia's  praiseworthy  and  beneficent  work  during  the  same  century 
in  the  peaceful  pursuit  of  scientific  exploration,  trade  and  industry  and  the  inter- 
nal development,  spiritual  and  material,  of  Siberia  promises  well  for  her  future 
sway  in  Asia,  gives  her  a  well  earned  title  to  a  responsible  position,  and  clearly 
indicates  the  spirit  in  which  Russia  means — or  shall  I  say  ought — to  take  the 
lead  in  matters  connected  with  Asiatic  affairs. 

"  But  whatever  may  be  said  of  our  material  success  in  Asia,  our  activity  during 
the  past  two  centuries  cannot  account  for  the  wonderful  prestige  attaching  to  our 
name  and  authority  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives  of  various  races  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  Asiatic  Continent.  Such  a  reputation  is  not  to  be  acquired  by  mere 
conquest  and  brutal  force,  as  the  unenviable  position  of  the  English  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  natives  of  India  proves  satisfactorily.  No,  the  enigma  of  Russian 
prestige  in  Asia  must  be  solved  by  looking  backward,  by  trying  to  see  what  are 
the  lessons  taught  by  the  history  of  many  centuries  in  the  past.  We  shall  realize 
then  the  truth,  the  overwhelming  importance  and  the  all-absorbing  significance 
of  Prince  Ukhtomsky's  conception  of  the  history  of  Russian  progress  through 


610  Missions  and  Modem  History- 

Asia.  It  is  an  instinctive  and  irresistible  impulse,  a  retrogression  of  the  Russian 
people  to  the  once  abundant  and  overflowing  sources  of  life,  of  faith,  of  love.  It 
is  an  intercommunion  with  the  vital  creative  forces  of  spiritual  greatness 
which  in  bygone  days  called  forth  to  life  mighty  empires  with  a  true  culture 
(Tamerlane,  Ghenghis  Khan,  Akbar,  etc.),  which,  experiencing  no  organizing  in. 
fluence,  were  fated  to  send  us  forth  from  Asia  as  barbarians  and  which,  underly- 
ing our  national  character,  after  undergoing  an  organizing  process  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Western  culture,  have  preserved  our  identity  with  our  former  selves, 
have  made  us  great  and  now  lead  us  back  to  Asia  with  the  self-imposed  and 
wholly  conscientious  task  of  recalling  to  life  those  peoples  who  are  of  common 
race,  common  faith  and  common  destiny  with  ourselves.  Our  solidarity  of 
spiritual  inclination  with  the  Asiatics  is  the  primary  cause  of  our  spiritual  victory 
over  the  whole  of  Asia,  wherever  the  name  of  the  White  Czar  stirs  a  man  to  an 
effort  of  self-concentrated  thought,  which  in  itself  is  an  act  of  contemplative  devo- 
tion and  fills  the  soul  with  an  intense  and  fervid  glow.  We  have  in  ourselves, 
even  among  the  population  of  European  Russia,  all  the  elements  of  race  and 
creed  that  we  come  across  in  Asia,  and  that  we  are  bound  to  unite  in  one  har- 
monious whole  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.     Such  is  our  mission  ! 

"  In  resuscitating  to  conscious  life  and  active  faith  our  brethren  in  spirit  and 
origin,  in  coming  into  contact  with  these  dormant  forces,  we  participate  in  their 
spiritual  riches  and  prepare  our  own  regeneration,  our  renovation  in  spirit ;  we 
renew  our  strength  and  work  out  our  own  salvation ;  that  is  our  purpose ! 

"  What  are  the  conclusions  we  have  arrived  at?  Simply  these:  That  in  the 
past  Russia  has  rendered  enormous  services  to  mankind  in  keeping  in  check  the 
barbarians  of  Asia,  and  finally,  through  incessant  strife,  by  breaking  up  their  em- 
pires ;  that  Russia's  expansion  in  Asia  was  and  is  an  instinctive  movement 
boding  peace.  It  is  a  natural  peaceful  development,  which  besides  Russia  is  to 
be  found  in  two  more  cases  only ;  China  and  the  United  States ;  that  it  is  useless 
to  oppose  Russia  in  Asia  and  greatly  preferable  to  associate  one's  self  with  her  in 
her  policy  ;  obstacles  may  be  raised  in  Russia's  path  at  all  points,  but  the  force 
of  circumstances  will  in  the  long  run  sweep  them  all  away."1 

Driven  on  by  such  a  consciousness  of  destiny,  what  will  stay  the 
further  movement  of  Russia  ?  First  the  ignorance  of  the  Russian 
people.     No  ignorant  people  can  withstand   an  intelligent  people." 

'  The  Independent,  May  4,  1899,  Art.,  "  Russia's  Extension  in  Asia,  Its  History 
and  Purpose,"  pp.  1195-1206. 

'"The  Russian  army  is  wholly  uneducated.  Its  officers  are  untrained,  and 
the  details  of  the  battles  of  the  Valu  and  of  Nanshan  Hill  show  it.  The  Russian 
officers  proved  wholly  unfit  for  their  work.  Five-sixths  of  the  Russian  rank  and 
file  are  unable  to  read  and  write  with  intelligence,  though  the  number  put  down 
as  literate  in  official  returns  is  somewhat  greater.  The  result  has  been  that  the 
Russian  army  was  unable  to  use  to  the  best  advantage  even  the  weapons  with 
which  it  was  provided.  This  great  military  monarchy  was  supposed  to  be  almost 
omnipotent    in  a  land  war,  but  the  event  has   proved  once  more    that  under 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  611 

Second,  the  hollow  unreality  of  autocratic  power.  The  three  chief 
opposing  political  interests  are  Germany,  England  and  Japan. 
The  Emperor  of  Germany  has  driven  his  influence  between 
Russia  and  Central  China  by  the  appropriation  of  Shan-tung, 
and  he  has  done  more  than  any  one  else  to  impede  the  Russian 
absorption  of  Asia  Minor  and  Russia's  acquisition  of  Constan- 
tinople, through  his  friendship  for  the  Sultan  and  his  railroad 
schemes  in  the  Euphrates  valley.  Japan  will  not  give  up  Korea, 
which  Russia  wants  to  complete  its  territory  in  southeastern  Siberia, 
and  she  is  fighting  for  the  reclamation  of  Manchuria  to  China,  and 
England  has  interests  from  Korea  to  Gibraltar,  which  bring  her 
into  contact  if  not  collision  with  the  Slav.  Up  to  the  time  of  the 
war  with  Japan  all  of  these  problems  had  been  changing  steadily  to 
Russia's  gain.  She  was  nearer  Constantinople  than  ever.  She 
could  take  {what  is  called  Anatolia  and  northern  Persia  when  she 
would,  and  as  to  Korea,  Russia  was  at  least  better  off  than  before 
she  had  Manchuria  and  the  ports  on  the  open  sea.  As  to  France 
and  Austria,  the  latter  has  no  interests  in  Asia,  while  the  former  had 
been  won  to  Russia's  support  at  no  cost  whatever  to  Russia's  interest. 
It  was  a  great  change  from  the  day  when  England  and  France  joined 
to  support  Turkey  in  the  Crimean  war,  when  Russia  stood  raw,  un- 
developed and  alone.  As  the  editor  of  The  Independent  remarked 
six  or  seven  years  ago,  in  comment  on  a  collection  of  articles  in  his 
paper  on  European  and  international  relations  : 

"  The  reader  of  the  several  articles  which  outline  the  relation  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  Russia  and  Turkey  to  the  balance  of  power  will 
discover  how  everything  depends  on  Russia.  Great  Britain  would  intervene  in 
Turkey,  but  Russia  forbids.  England  now  seeks  Russia's  good-will ;  she  has 
no  quarrel  with  Russia.  France  simply  follows  Russia ;  she  has  no  initiative  of 
her  own.  Germany  is  reverting  to  the  policy  of  Bismarck,  which  requires  her  to 
keep  on  good  terms  with  Russia  at  an  expense.  Austria's  only  fear  is  of  Russia. 
Italy  has  lost  her  prestige,  and  has,  it  would  seem,  depended  on  Russia  for  the 
influence  which  secured  from  Menelek  of  Abyssinia  even  the  meagre  advantages 
of  the  late  treaty.  Turkey  is  in  Russia's  hand,  waiting  for  the  fingers  to  clutch. 
Russia  bides  her  time,  just  now  most  interested  in  the  advance  which  is  making 

modern  conditions  wide-spread  intelligence  and  education  is  as  necessary  in  war 
as  in  trade,  that  a  despotism  is,  in  the  shock  of  conflict,  the  weakest  of  all  gov- 
ernments, and  that  when  the  hour  of  trial  comes,  knowledge  and  liberty  are 
justified  of  their  children  and  of  the  nation  which  puts  its  trust  in  them"  (The 
Churchman,  June  II,  1904.) 


6 12  Missions  and  Modern  History 

her  the  protector  of  Korea  and  Manchuria,  and  Turkey  can  wait.  Russia  has 
every  advantage  in  the  rivalry  of  Powers,  enormous  territory,  an  overwhelming 
army,  and,  chief  of  all,  no  popular  sentiment,  no  elections,  no  freedom  to  inter- 
fere with  the  will  of  the  autocrat  Czar."  ' 

And  though  Turkey  waits,  the  day  of  the  Slav's  revenge,  he  be- 
lieves, will  surely  come.  The  early  development  of  the  Slav  race 
was  "checked  by  the  Turkish  invasion  of  Europe.  But  for  this 
Constantinople  would,  centuries  ago,  have  been  the  capital  of  a  great 
Slavic  Empire,  and  Central  Europe  might  have  been  Slavic  instead 
of  German.  As  it  was,  all  the  southern  Slavs  fell  under  the  Turks 
and  went  back  to  barbarism."  2  The  northern  Slavs  have  waited 
centuries  to  redeem  this  history  and  are  confident  that  their  day  will 
come. 

What  is  to  be  said  of  all  this  great  transformation  in  Russia's  posi- 
tion, and  the  nature  of  her  influence?  Can  Mr.  Holmstrem's  view 
be  accepted  without  abatement  ?  This  was  before  the  conflict  with 
Japan.  Does  that  conflict  signify  the  collapse  of  all  this  great  move- 
ment? 

It  is  obvious  that  the  outward  movement  of  Russia  has  been 
natural ;  the  Russians  contend  that  it  has  been  necessary  and  inevita- 
ble. "Empires  are  limited  by  seas,"  says  the  Novoye  Vrcmya* 
continents  by  oceans,  and  Russia  is  a  continent.  .  .  .  It  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  do  otherwise  than  advance  to  India  and  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  It  is  not  we  who  advance  ;  it  is  history  that  carries  us  for- 
ward." *  Oftentimes  the  expansion  has  been  due  to  individuals  act- 
ing under  the  impulse  of  the  racial  dream  and  disposition  of  em- 
pire. Mr.  Holmstrem  refers  to  this,  and  also  betrays  naively  the 
fact  that  once  a  Russian  representative  has  on  his  own  initiative  even 
though  against  "  fierce  opposition  from  those  high  in  power"  taken 
an  advance  step,  the  Government  is  ready  to  take  advantage  of  his 
disobedience  : 

"  The  ultimate  goal  in  the  Far  East  was  attained,  thanks  to  the  far-sighted 
policy  of  Nicholas  I,  whose  statesmanlike  activity  always  bore  traces  of  the  influ- 
ence   of  a  great  national  consciousness.     He  was  seconded  in  his  efforts  and 

1  Quoted  in  The  Contemporary  Review,  January,  1897,  p.  157. 

2  Contemporary  Review,  Art.,  "The  Coming  of  the  Slav,"  January,  1898,  p.  2. 
'September  4,   1898. 

4  Quoted  in  The  Contemporary  Review,  Art.,  "  The  Czar's  Eirenicon,"  Novem- 
ber, 1898,  p.  634. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  613 

assisted  in  carrying  out  his  designs,  amid  surroundings  far  from  favourable  to  them, 
by  the  famous,  highly  gifted  and  energetic  Governor-General  of  Eastern  Siberia, 
Count  N.  Muravieff,  the  grandfather  of  the  present  Russian  Foreign  Minister. 
Being  appointed  to  his  post  in  the  Far  East  in  1847,  Count  Muravieff  showed 
himself  the  man  to  fulfill  our  destiny.  In  the  face  of  fierce  opposition  from  those 
high  in  power,  in  contradiction  to  instructions  received  by  him,  but  aided  by  his 
devoted  companion,  Admiral  Nevelsky,  who  was  actuated  by  the  same  intense 
faith  in  Russia's  destiny,  he  secured  for  us  by  means  of  military  and  scientific 
expeditions  the  whole  of  the  Amur  region,  Admiral  Nevelsky,  on  August  1,  1850, 
hoisting  the  Russian  flag  at  the  newly  explored  mouth  of  the  principal  river  of 
Eastern  Siberia.  In  consequence  of  this  splendid  achievement,  Russia,  which 
for  150  years  had  been  on  excellent  terms  with  China,  acquired  by  the  Aigun 
treaty  all  the  left  bank  of  the  Amur,  and  some  years  later,  in  i860,  thanks  to  the 
efforts  of  Count  Ignatieff,  the  Chinese,  then  occupied  by  war  with  the  English 
and  the  French,  concluded  a  new  treaty  at  Pekin  by  which  the  region  of  the 
Usuri  River  (a  tributary  of  the  Amur)  was  ceded  to  Russia.  The  whole  expanse 
of  land  from  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk  on  the  one  hand  and  Korea  and  Manchuria  on 
the  other,  along  with  its  coast  line,  came  into  the  possession  of  Russia,  and  the 
hold  of  the  Empire  on  its  eastern  territories  was  secured  once  for  all.  For,  as 
Nicholas  I  said  on  hearing  that  in  1849  Admiral  Nevelsky  had  planted  the  Rus- 
sian flag  at  the  mouth  of  the  Amur :  '  Where  once  the  Russian  flag  has  been 
hoisted  it  must  never  be  lowered  again  ! '" 1 

Doubtless  often  Government  denial  of  the  purpose  to  take  some 
step  in  advance  may  have  been  sincere,  or  it  may  have  come  from 
one  body  of  officials,  another  body,  holding  different  views,  later  suc- 
ceeding in  carrying  their  purpose.  Or  changes  of  opinion  may  have 
come  quickly.  Or,  as  there  is  too  much  evidence  to  prove,  there 
may  have  been  simple  prevarication.  "In  January,  1873,  Count 
Schouvaloff  had  been  sent  on  a  special  mission  to  pacify  England 
with  regard  to  the  expedition  against  Khiva,  and  had  then  declared 
that  '  not  only  was  it  far  from  the  intention  of  the  Emperor  to  take 
possession  of  Khiva,  but  positive  orders  had  been  prepared  to  pre- 
vent it,  and  directions  given  that  the  conditions  imposed  should  be 
such  as  would  not  in  any  way  lead  to  the  prolonged  occupation  of 
Khiva.'  Notwithstanding  this  statement  Khiva  was  made  part  of 
All  the  Russias.  *  Communication  of  intention,'  was  said  by  way 
of  excuse,  '  did  not  amount  to  an  absolute  promise.'  "  2  "  *I  author- 
ize  you,'  M.  de  Witte,   when  Minister  of  Finance,   is  reported  to 

1  The  hidependent,  May  4,  1899,  p.  1201. 
5  Harper's  Weekly,  June  23,  1900,  p.  571. 


614  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

have  said  to  a  correspondent,1  '  to  state  over  again,  as  emphatically 
as  you  know  how,  that  I  have  no  intention  whatever  of  borrowing.' 
Ten  weeks  later  (May  12th)  the  Imperial  ukase  authorizing  the  loan 
was  published."  2  "  Destiny  is  more  powerful  than  human  purpose," 
the  Russians  would  say.     ''God  means  Russia  to  rule  Asia." 

Apart  from  such  theological  explanation,  however,  there  is  a 
natural  and  wholly  intelligible  explanation  of  much  of  Russia's  de- 
velopment.    Mr.  Wallace  sets  this  forth  : 

"  An  agricultural  people,  employing  merely  the  primitive  methods  of  agricul- 
ture, has  always  a  strong  tendency  to  widen  its  borders.  The  natural  increase 
of  population  demands  a  constantly-increasing  production  of  grain,  whilst  the 
primitive  methods  of  cultivation  exhaust  the  soil  and  steadily  diminish  its  pro- 
ductivity. With  regard  to  this  stage  of  economic  development,  the  modest  asser- 
tion of  Malthus,  that  the  supply  of  food  does  not  increase  so  rapidly  as  the 
population,  often  falls  far  short  of  the  truth.  As  the  population  increases,  the 
supply  of  food  may  decrease  not  only  relatively  but  absolutely.  When  a  people 
finds  itself  in  this  critical  position  it  must  adopt  one  of  two  alternatives ;  either 
it  must  prevent  the  increase  of  population,  or  it  must  increase  the  production  of 
food.  In  the  former  case  it  may  legalize  the  custom  of  '  exposing  '  infants,  as 
was  done  in  ancient  Greece ;  or  it  may  regularly  sell  a  large  portion  of  the  young 
women  and  children,  as  was  done  until  very  recently  in  Circassia ;  or  the  surplus 
population  may  emigrate  to  foreign  lands,  as  the  Scandinavians  did  in  the  ninth 
century,  and  as  we  ourselves  are  doing  in  a  more  peaceable  fashion  at  the  pres- 
ent day.  The  other  alternative  may  be  effected  either  by  extending  the  area  of 
cultivation  or  by  improving  the  system  of  agriculture. 

"  The  Russo-Slavonians,  being  an  agricultural  people,  experienced  this  diffi- 
culty, but  for  them  it  was  not  serious.  A  convenient  way  of  escape  was  plainly 
indicated  by  their  peculiar  geographical  position.  They  were  not  hemmed  in  by 
lofty  mountains  or  stormy  seas.  To  the  south  and  east — at  their  very  doors,  as  it 
were — lay  a  boundless  expanse  of  thinly-populated  virgin  soil,  awaiting  the  labour 
of  the  husbandman  and  ready  to  repay  it  most  liberally.  The  peasantry,  there- 
fore, instead  of  exposing  their  infants,  selling  their  daughters,  or  sweeping  the 
seas  as  vikings,  simply  spread  out  towards  the  east  and  south.  This  was  at  once 
the  most  natural  and  wisest  course,  for  of  all  the  expedients  for  preserving  the 
equilibrium  between  population  and  food-production,  increasing  the  area  of  culti- 
vation is,  under  the  circumstances  just  described,  the  easiest  and  most  effective. 
Theoretically,  the  same  result  might  have  been  obtained  by  improving  the 
method  of  agriculture,  but  practically  this  was  impossible.  Intensive  culture  is 
not  likely  to  be  adopted  so  long  as  expansion  is  easy.     High  farming  is  a  thing 

1  Daily  Telegraph,  March  5,  1 901. 

2  Norman,  All  the  Russias,  p.  366,  footnote. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  615 

to  be  proud  of  when  there  is  a  scarcity  of  land,  but  it  would  be  absurd  to  at- 
tempt it  where  there  is  abundance  of  virgin  soil  in  the  vicinity. 

"The  process  of  expansion,  thus  produced  by  purely  economic  causes,  was  ac- 
celerated by  influences  of  another  kind,  especially  during  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  officials,  the  augmentation 
of  the  taxes,  the  merciless  exactions  of  the  Voyevods  and  their  subordinates,  the 
transformation  of  the  peasants  and  '  free  wandering  people  '  into  serfs,  the  ec- 
clesiastical reforms  and  consequent  persecution  of  the  schismatics,  the  frequent 
conscriptions  and  violent  reforms  of  Peter  the  Great,  these  and  other  kinds  of 
oppression  made  thousands  flee  from  their  homes  and  seek  a  refuge  in  the  free 
territory,  where  there  were  no  officials,  no  tax-gatherers,  and  no  proprietors.  But 
the  State,  with  its  army  of  tax-gatherers  and  officials,  followed  close  on  the  heels 
of  the  fugitives,  and  those  who  wished  to  preserve  their  liberty  had  to  advance 
still  further.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  authorities  to  retain  the  popula- 
tion in  the  localities  actually  occupied,  the  wave  of  colonization  moved  steadily 
onwards. 

"  The  vast  territory  which  lay  open  to  the  colonists  consisted  of  two  contigu- 
ous regions,  separated  from  each  other  by  no  mountains  or  rivers,  but  widely 
differing  from  each  other  in  many  respects.  The  one,  comprising  all  the  north- 
ern part  of  Eastern  Europe  and  of  Asia,  even  unto  Kamchatka,  may  be  roughly 
described  as  a  land  of  forests,  intersected  by  many  rivers,  and  containing  numer- 
ous lakes  and  marshes  ;  the  other,  stretching  southwards  to  the  Black  Sea,  east- 
wards far  away  into  Central  Asia,  is  for  the  most  part  what  Russians  call  '  the 
steppe,'  and  Americans  would  call  the  prairies."1 

The  political  and  racial  ambition  and  the  sense  of  the  need  of  ac- 
cess to  the  sea  have  been  superadded  to  the  expansion  due  to  agri- 
cultural necessities ;  but  the  latter  alone  would  have  led  to  the  natural 
political  development  of  the  empire.  And  the  notion  that  this  de- 
velopment could  stop  at  the  limit  of  buffer  states,  once  very  preva- 
lent, grows  increasingly  untenable.  Such  buffer  states  in  Asia  be- 
come refuges  for  rascality,  or  through  their  weakness,  simply  provide 
grounds  of  difficulty  and  jealousy.  Russian  expansion  in  Asia  has 
been  on  this  account  perfectly  legitimate.  Mr.  Wallace's  judgment 
here  is  quite  just : 

"  'Where,  then,'  asks  the  alarmed  Russophobist,  '  is  the  aggression 
of  Russia  to  stop  ?  Must  we  allow  her  to  push  her  frontier  forward 
to  our  own,  and  thereby  expose  ourselves  to  the  danger  of  those  con- 
flicts which  inevitably  arise  between  nations  that  possess  contiguous 
territory  ?  '     To  this  I  reply  that  Russia  must  push  forward  her  fron- 

1  Wallace,  Russia,  pp.  580,  581. 


616  Missions  and  Modern  History 

tier  until  she  reaches  a  country  possessing  a  Government  which  is 
able  and  willing  to  keep  order  within  its  boundaries,  and  to  prevent 
its  subjects  from  committing  depredations  on  their  neighbours.  As 
none  of  the  petty  States  of  Central  Asia  seem  capable  of  permanently 
fulfilling  this  condition,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  the  Russian  and  Brit- 
ish frontiers  will  one  day  meet.  Where  they  will  meet  depends  upon 
ourselves.  If  we  do  not  wish  our  rival  to  overstep  a  certain  line,  we 
must  ourselves  advance  to  that  line.  As  to  the  complications  and 
disputes  which  inevitably  arise  between  contiguous  nations,  I  think 
they  are  fewer  and  less  dangerous  than  those  which  arise  between  na- 
tions separated  from  each  other  by  a  small  state  which  is  incapable 
of  making  its  neutrality  respected,  and  is  kept  alive  simply  by  the 
mutual  jealousy  of  rival  powers.  Germany  does  not  periodically  go 
to  war  with  Holland  and  Russia,  though  separated  from  them  by  a 
mere  artificial  frontier,  whilst  France  and  Austria  have  never  been 
prevented  from  going  to  war  with  each  other  by  the  broad  interven- 
ing territory.  The  old  theory  that  great  powers  may  be  made  to 
keep  the  peace  by  interposing  small  independent  states  between  them 
is  long  since  exploded ;  and  even  if  it  were  true  it  would  be  inappli- 
cable in  the  case  under  consideration,  for  there  is  nothing  worthy  of 
being  called  an  independent  state  between  Russian  territory  and 
British  India."  l 

The  Russians  further  justify  this  great  movement  over  Asia  by  the 
contention  that  they  themselves  are  Asiatic,  that  they  are  only  ap- 
propriating their  own,  assuming  responsibilities  which  fall  to  them, 
and  which  no  purely  Western  people  can  discharge,  that  they  alone 
are  able  to  establish  order,  to  keep  at  peace  these  diverse  races  and 
religions,  and  to  assimilate  and  civilize  them.  It  is  customary  in  the 
West  to  assent  to  these  claims,  and  to  contrast  the  policies  of  Russia 
and  Great  Britain  at  this  point.  "Russia  assimilates,  while  England 
merely  superimposes  her  authority,"  says  Professor  Reinsch.  "  Rus- 
sians are  fond  of  likening  their  empire  to  Rome ;  the  acid  by  whicli 
national  and  local  organisms  are  dissolved  into  their  elements,  to  be 
precipitated  again  in  the  form  of  a  higher  unity,  is  the  Russian  na- 
tional spirit.  If  Russian  advance  should  be  allowed  to  go  on  natu- 
rally and  gradually  as  it  has  in  the  past,  the  power  of  that  nation  in 
Asia  would   become  almost  irresistible ;    England  in  opposing  her 

1  Wallace,  Russia,  p.  596. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  617 

would  have  the  unfortunate  position  of  Carthage.  She  would  have 
to  rely  for  her  defence  on  unassimilated  subject  nations,  while  Russia 
could  summon  against  her  the  vast  masses  that  will  gradually  become 
penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  Russian  polity  and  civilization.  In  gen- 
eral, economic  considerations  are  of  primary  importance  in  British 
expansion ;  in  the  expansion  of  Russia,  they  are  only  secondary. ' '  ' 
"  Wherever  Russia  goes,"  says  the  editor  of  The  Independent,  "  she 
not  only  conquers,  but  assimilates."  a  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Wal- 
lace declared  twenty-five  years  ago  : 

"  Russia's  power  of  expansion  has  always  been  much  greater  than 
her  power  of  assimilating  the  annexed  population.  In  annexing  the 
Baltic  Provinces,  Poland  and  Finland,  she  left  them  a  very  large 
amount  of  administrative  autonomy.  At  the  present  day  Finland 
has  its  own  officials,  its  own  coinage,  and  its  own  custom-house ;  and 
the  Russians  compose  less  than  two  per  cent,  of  the  population.  Even 
in  the  provinces,  which  have  no  peculiar  administrative  autonomy, 
the  population  is,  as  I  have  shown  in  preceding  chapters,  very 
heterogeneous.  Wherever  the  Russians  and  the  foreign  race  are  in 
different  stages  of  economic  development — as  for  example,  where  the 
one  are  agriculturalists  and  the  other  lead  a  pastoral  life — no  amal- 
gamation has  taken  place.  Where  no  such  economic  obstacles  exist, 
an  equally  efficient  barrier  is  often  formed  by  religion.  Tribes  that 
have  no  higher  religion  than  a  rude  polytheism  easily  become 
Orthodox  and  Russian  ;  but  the  Mohammedans,  the  Roman  Catholics, 
and  the  Protestants,  never  become  Russians  in  the  full  sense  of  the 
term.  Thus,  we  find  among  the  subjects  of  the  Czar  a  great  many 
distinct  nationalities,  often  living  in  close  proximity.  Not  to  mention 
numerous  Turanian  tribes,  we  may  say  that  the  Russo-German,  the 
Pole,  the  Finlander,  the  Georgian,  and  the  Armenian,  differ  from 
each  other  as  widely  as  the  Frenchman,  the  German,  the  Italian,  and 
the  Englishman."  3 

Russia  assimilates  by  letting  alone,  if  that  is  assimilation.  She 
stops  crime.  She  does  not  touch  character  save  as  the  cessation  of 
uncontrolled  crime  affects  it.  She  does  give  a  measure  of  liberty. 
The  Caucasus  has  been  the  goal  of  the  persecuted  in  Turkey  and 

1  Reinsch,  World  Politics,  p.  222. 

«  The  Independent,  Editorial,  "  Eurasia,"  May  4,  1899,  p.  1246. 

3  Wallace,  Russia,  pp.  5871. 


618  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Persia.  During  the  Armenian  massacres  numerous  companies  of 
ragged  refugees  managed  to  cross  the  border,  and  found  an  asylum 
under  the  secure  protection  of  the  Czar ;  but  it  was  tranquillity,  that 
was  all.  It  was  not  civilization,  the  hope  of  free  progress  or  liberty. 
It  was  order  under  absolutism.  Just  how  the  Russian  influence  works 
at  its  best  in  Asia  is  illustrated  by  its  course  among  the  Kirghese  and 
the  Mongols  : 

"  To  every  inch  of  ground  acquired  Russia  brought  immediately  two  things  : 
commercial  advantages  and  a  firm  military  rule  which  protected  the  people  from 
the  hordes  of  robbers  which  roamed  the  steppes.  Russian  officials  made  it 
profitable  for  Russian  merchants  to  sell  goods  to  Kirghese  chiefs  on  credit  in 
order  to  promote  friendship  and  intercourse,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  courts  were  established  in  which  Kazak  elders  took  their  seats  beside 
Russian  judges.  Observing  that  the  Kirghese  were  strong  Mohammedans, 
Mullahs  were  employed  to  spread  that  religion,  and  the  Koran  was  published 
by  the  Russian  Government  in  the  native  tongue.  At  the  same  time  prophets 
of  Mahomet  were  being  cast  into  prison  in  European  Russia  for  propagating  their 
religion. 

"  Russia's  first  mission  in  Central  Asia  was  protection.  The  success  she 
achieved  among  the  Tartars  and  Kirghese  was  repeated  among  the  Mongols. 
Under  China  the  Mongols  had  no  protection.  Their  fruitful  country  was  ever  a 
rich  field  for  robbers.  The  messengers  were  hurried  to  Peking  never  so  fast,  the 
cumbersome  Chinese  military  always  arrived  late,  and  when  they  came  were  as 
bad  as  the  robbers,  for  they  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land  and  were  in  no  hurry  to 
be  gone.  When  Russia  came  all  this  was  done  away.  Military  posts  were 
erected  at  convenient  distances.  China  never  built  a  road.  Russia  did  this  at 
once.  China  allowed  no  communication  with  the  world.  Russia  swung  her 
wires  over  forest  and  plain.  China  imposed  a  wobegone  currency.  Baskets  of 
tea,  raw  silver  and  brass  cash  passed  as  mediums  of  exchange.  In  a  transaction 
it  was  as  difficult  to  find  a  satisfactory  medium  of  exchange  as  to  strike  the 
original  bargain.  Chinamen  drove  the  Mongol  from  business.  Russian  in- 
fluence established  him  in  business  and  with  a  good  currency.  '  It  is  no  un- 
common thing,'  wrote  the  brave  English  missionary,  Gilmour,  '  to  meet  with 
respectable  men,  educated,  intelligent  and  wealthy,  who  were  born  mere 
Mongols,  but  who  have  been  elevated  to  the  civilization  and  intelligence  of  the 
nineteenth  century  by  the  happy  influence  of  the  judicious  measures  adopted 
by  the  Russian  Government  for  the  amelioration  of  its  more  lowly  subjects.'  "  ' 

Russian  rule  represents  a  real  gain  in  Asia.  But  is  it  the  im- 
position of  a  good  that  is  a  permanent  prohibition  of  the  best?     The 

1  The  Independent,  November  I,  1900,  Art.,  "The  Better  Side  of  Russian 
Rule  in  Asia,"  pp.  2632^ 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  619 

Russian  contends  that  it  is  the  establishment  of  what  is  best  in  the 
conditions.  Our  ideal  is  contradictory.  The  two  civilizations  stand 
in  real  and  direct  antagonism  ;  the  Russian  ideal  of  an  autocracy 
maintaining  order  over  people  kept  in  falsehoods  because  these  are 
best  for  them ;  the  Western  ideal  of  liberty  in  which  each  man  is 
given  freedom  and  summoned  to  know  all  the  truth. 

Postponing  the  attempt  to  reach  a  balanced  judgment,  let  us 
introduce  the  religious  element  of  the  problem,  deferred  until  the 
political  expansion  had  been  considered.  The  religious  element  is  a 
vital  one  in  its  relation  to  Russian  character  and  the  Russian  State. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace  the  history  of  the  Greek  Church.  The 
only  two  questions  of  interest  here  are  first,  the  relation  of  the  Church 
to  the  State  and  to  its  expansion,  and  second,  its  present  character 
and  influence. 

1 .  There  have  been  four  stages  in  the  development  of  the  relations 
of  the  Russian  Church  and  State.  "These  are,  broadly  :  first,  the 
period  of  the  complete  dependence  of  the  Church  upon  the  See  of 
Constantinople;  second,  the  transition  period,  during  which  it 
gradually  acquired  autonomy,  and  approached  the  time  of  its  emanci- 
pation from  foreign  control ;  then,  the  period  of  the  patriarchate, 
when  its  ecclesiastical  independence  had  been  definitely  established, 
and  it  rose  to  its  highest  power ;  and  finally,  that  of  the  Holy  Synod, 
when  it  became  subordinate  to  the  State,  and  which  still  continues."  ' 
It  was  Peter  the  Great  who  demolished  the  independence  of  the 
Church  and  made  it  a  department  of  the  State.  He  proposed  to 
prevent  all  clashing  of  Church  and  State,  and  to  make  the  former 
a  mere  auxiliary  of  the  latter,  a  fountain  of  sanction  and  support  of 
the  autocracy.  It  is  an  article  of  the  code  that  every  Russian  sub- 
ject shall  make  confession  and  partake  of  communion,  at  least  once 
in  every  year ;  and  the  civil  and  military  authorities  are,  with  the 
clergy,  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  law.  The  law  is  not 
rigidly  enforced,  but  it  is  there,  reducing  religious  duties  to  the  level 
of  police  regulations."  The  control  of  the  Church  instead  of  being 
in  the  hands  of  a  patriarch  who  might  be  a  powerful  and  in- 
dependent character  like  the  great  Nikon,  is  vested  in  the  Holy 
Synod,  which  is  dependent  upon  the  will  of  the  Emperor.     "The 

1  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  p.  153. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  I48f. 


()2o  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Holy  Synod  takes  precedence  over  all  the  other  great  bodies  of  the 
State ;  it  replaces  the  patriarch,  with  all  his  rights  and  privileges ; 
originally,  it  was  more  of  a  representative  assembly,  comprising  the 
different  ranks  of  the  clergy,  and  bishops  were  in  a  numerical 
minority  ;  now,  in  accordance  with  the  practice  of  the  early  Church, 
which  placed  authority  in  the  hands  of  its  bishops,  the  episcopal 
element  predominates.  The  three  metropolitans  of  Kiev,  Moscow, 
and  St.  Petersburg  are  entitled  to  membership  by  right  of  their 
offices,  and  the  latter  is  the  presiding  officer ;  the  Exarch  of  Georgia 
is  also  admitted  upon  the  same  ground  ;  the  other  members  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  Emperor — some  for  definite  periods,  others  to  hold 
office  during  his  pleasure ;  some  in  full  and  regular  standing,  others 
as  supernumeraries  or  assistants;  they  comprise  four  or  five  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  or  archimandrites,  and  two  arch-priests  of  the 
secular  clergy,  one  of  whom  usually  is  the  chaplain  and  confessor  of 
the  Emperor,  the  other  the  chaplain-general  of  the  army.  The  Synod 
has  its  seat  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  is  permanently  in  session.  The 
Emperor  is  represented  by  a  delegate  bearing  a  title  corresponding  to 
attorney-general  (ober-procurator),  who  assists  at  the  meetings,  but 
who  is  not,  properly  speaking,  a  member ;  this  official  is  always  a  lay- 
man, frequently  a  military  officer  of  high  rank,  and  is  the  person- 
ification of  the  civil  authority;  he  acts  as  the  intermediary  between 
the  Emperor  and  the  Synod  ;  all  communications  pass  by  his  hands ; 
he  presents  to  the  Synod  all  laws  projected  by  the  Government,  and 
submits  all  decisions  of  the  Synod  for  imperial  sanction  ;  he  proposes 
all  measures,  directs  all  business,  and  executes  all  decrees ;  no  act  is 
valid  without  his  assent,  and  he  has  the  right  of  veto,  if  any  action 
of  the  Synod  appears  to  him  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  State."  ' 
The  Procurator  is  the  real  ruler  of  the  Church,  and  he  is  a  layman, 
and  often  a  military  man.  He  is  the  only  channel  of  communication 
between  the  Synod  and  the  Emperor,  and  he  can  shape  the  Synod  by 
dismissals  and  appointments  to  do  his  will.  By  this  thoroughly 
civil  control  of  the  Church  it  is  reduced  to  a  department  of  state,  and 
is  used  by  the  Government  for  its  ends  just  as  the  army  or  navy  is 
used.2 

1  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  pp.  I5&f. 

5  It  has  been  alleged  that  there  is  another  peculiar  civil  relationship  of  the 
Church  to  the  State.  "  Since  the  Napoleonic  wars,"  says  Colonel  McCarty, 
formerly  United  States  Military  Attache  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  later  Attache  in 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  62 1 

2.  So  much  for  the  relation  of  Church  and  State.  What  is  to  be 
said  as  to  the  present  character  and  influence  of  the  Church  ?  Is 
there  any  religion  in  such  a  state  machine  as  this  ?  Perhaps  a  dis- 
tinction should  be  made  between  the  Church  and  the  people.  Mr. 
Volkhovsky  makes  this  discrimination:  "A  religion  can  win  over 
human  souls  and  be  secure  in  its  acquisitions,  only  in  the  case  of  its 
giving  something  for  the  ideal  aspiration  of  man — its  supplying  such 
moral  basis  for  every-day  conduct  as  would  be  in -accordance  with  the 
natural  human  instincts  of  sociability,  self-preservation  and  self-re- 
spect—its being  able  to  stand  the  test  of  human  criticism.  But  the 
present  Russian  State  Church  is  unable  to  give  anything  of  this  kind. 
It  is  one  of  the  departments  of  state  administration,  ruled  on  the 
strictest  bureaucratic  basis  by  102  bishops  and  sixty-four  offices,  called 
'consistories,'  headed  by  the  central  office,  termed  the  Holy  Synod, 
which  is  in  the  hollow  of  a  lay  state  official's  hand,  known  as  its 

the  service  of  the  Czar  Alexander  III,  "  the  Russian  Church  has  had,  in  addition 
to  its  ordinary  work,  one  great  and  specific  charge  intrusted  to  it,  the  hoarding  of 
money  in  order  to  restrict  the  power  of  rival  nations.  Every  year  since  1815, 
Russia  has  added  a  vast  sum  to  her  secret  hoard  of  gold.  In  no  war  since  then 
has  she  ever  used  a  rouble  of  the  money  thus  laid  by.  There  are  two  great 
sources  of  revenue,  both  of  them  fully  under  control,  and  where  the  world  could 
know  nothing  of  them — Russian  mines,  and  contributions  to  the  Church.  The 
Russian  Church  is  both  custodian  and  collector.  Russia,  in  earlier  days,  was  the 
one  great  gold  producing  country  Since  Peter's  day  she  has  been  a  large  pro- 
ducer of  gold,  though  much  larger  than  generally  known,  because  only  a  part  of 
the  gold  mined  in  Russia — it  is  mined  lay  the  Government — has  been  reported. 
It  has  been  secretly  put  into  the  Church  fund.  The  Russian  mines  were  estab- 
lished by  Peter  the  Great.  But  they  have  been  very  largely  developed  since,  and 
in  recent  years  gold  bearing  rock  has  been  worked  to  some  extent,  though  the 
great  bulk  of  Russia's  gold  output  has  come  from  placer  mining  by  convicts. 

"  A  secret  fund  has  been  created  by  collections  from  the  people  through  the 
Church.  In  Russia  all  citizens  belong  to  the  Russian  Church.  Every  officer  and 
soldier  and  every  Government  official  and  employer  from  the  Czar  to  the  poorest 
moujik  contributes  weekly  to  the  Church.  It  has  been  said,  by  those  who  had 
means  to  know,  that  Church  expenditures  have  not,  for  eighty  years  past,  ex- 
ceeded one-half  of  Church  collections.  Twenty  years  or  more  ago  the  author 
had  some  means  of  knowing  the  extent  of  the  accumulations  from  the  Russian 
mines.  And  four  or  five  years  afterwards  it  became  his  fortune  to  be  able  to  learn 
something  of  the  total  from  the  mines  and  the  Church  collections.  At  this  time 
Russia's  gold  hoard  approximated  three  billions  of  dollars,  and  to-day  it  is  nearly 
four  billions  at  the  rate  of  accumulation.  Fully  half  of  Russia's  hoard  has  come 
from  gold  not  counted  in  the  world's  production  because  secretly  treasured. 
This  information  comes  partly  from  the  statements  of  one  of  the  highest  officials 
of  the  Church  at  St.  Petersburg,  who  is  familiar  with  the  extent  of  the  accumula- 
tion "  (The  Independent,  October  II,  1900,  p.  2450,  Art.,  "  Russia's  Hoarded 
Gold."  See  also  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  igoi,  Vol.  I,  p.  392,  Art.  of  Pro- 
fessor Katenbusch  on  "Russia").  An  ex-United  States  minister  to  Russia 
says  that  he  never  heard  of  this  Church  treasure  and  gives  little  faith  to  the  story. 


622  Missions  and  Modern  History 

procurator.  The  soul  of  the  Russian  Established  Church  as  a  Chris- 
tian religious  body  departed  centuries  ago.  There  is  nothing  that 
body  now  dreads  so  much  as  religious  enthusiasm. 

"Does  this  mean,  however,  that  the  religious  side  of  the  Russian 
people's  spiritual  life  is  at  a  standstill  ?  Far  from  it.  The  Russian 
people  is  more  spiritually  alive  than  ever.  It  has  not  one,  but  sev- 
eral genuinely  popular  churches  in  the  sense  that  word  had  in  the 
first  centuries  of  Christianity.  It  is  fervently  seeking  for  truth.  But 
all  these  things  must  not  be  looked  for  within  the  barren  field  of 
official  orthodoxy.  The  live  Christianity  of  the  Russian  people  is  in 
its  sectarianism,  and  M.  Pobedonostseff's  recent  report  gives  ample 
proof  of  that. "  1 

On  the  other  hand,  Miss  Isabel  F.  Hapgood  maintains:  "As  for 
the  present  state  of  the  Church,  I  cannot  see  that  there  is  any  differ- 
ence between  it  and  that  of  any  other  truly  spiritual  branch  of  the 
Catholic  Church  Universal.  As  for  its  spiritual  possibilities,  I  con- 
sider them  quite  as  great  as  in  any  other  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Russian  Church  and  people  are  civilizing  and  Chris- 
tianizing Asia ;  but  they  do  it,  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  part  of  the 
daily  duty,  and  talk  very  little  about  it.  Let  me  say,  in  conclusion, 
that  the  Russian  Church  nobly  endures  the  one  great  and  abiding 
test — it  produces  millions  of  Christians  of  the  old-fashioned,  gospel 
pattern,  who  live  their  lives  with  gentleness,  patience,  long-suffering, 
self-renunciation,  faith  and  love,  and  die  with  a  simple  calm  to  match. 
What  more  is  required?"2  Miss  Hapgood  paints  a  bright  picture. 
Others  do  not  claim  so  much.  What  a  Russian  statesman's  idea  of 
the  Church  is  is  indicated  in  Pobedonostseff's  essay  on  "The 
Church,"  in  Reflections  of  a  Russian  Statesman.  The  opening 
paragraphs  of  this  essay  will  suffice  : 

"The  more  we  consider  the  distinctive  ethnical  features  of  religion 
the  more  firmly  we  are  convinced  how  unattainable  is  a  union  of 
creeds — by  a  factitious  accord  in  dogma, — on  the  principle  of  recip- 
rocal confessions  in  immaterial  things.  The  essential  in  religion  can- 
not be  expressed  on  paper,  or  categorically  formulated.  The  most 
essential,  the  most  persistent,  and  the  most  precious  things  in  all  re- 
ligious creeds  are  as  elusive  and  as  insusceptible  of  definition  as  va- 

1  Christendom  Anno  Domini,  igoi,  Vol.  I,  pp.  4o6f. 

2  The  Outlook,  June  20,  1896,  Art.,  "The  Russian  Church,"  p.  1145. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  623 

rieties  of  light  and  shade — as  feelings  born  of  an  infinite  series  of 
emotions,  conceptions,  and  impressions.  The  essential  elements  are 
so  involved  with  the  psychical  nature  of  the  race,  with  the  principles 
of  their  moral  philosophy,  that  it  is  futile  to  separate  one  from  the 
other.  The  children  of  different  races  and  different  faiths,  in  many 
relations  may  feel  as  brethren,  and  give  to  one  another  their  hands ; 
but  to  feel  themselves  worshippers  in  the  same  temple,  joined  in  re- 
ligious communion,  they  must  have  lived  together  long  and  closely, 
they  must  sympathize  with  the  conditions  of  each  other's  existence, 
they  must  be  bound  by  the  most  intimate  links  in  the  depths  of  their 
souls.  A  German  who  has  lived  long  in  our  country  may  come  un- 
consciously to  believe  as  Russians  believe,  and  to  feel  at  home  in  the 
Russian  Church.  He  becomes  one  of  us,  and  is  in  complete  spirit- 
ual communion  with  us.  But  that  a  Protestant  community,  situated 
far  away,  judging  us  by  report  could,  through  abstract  accord  in 
dogma  and  ritual,  combine  with  us  in  one  Church  in  organic  alliance, 
and  become  one  with  us  in  spirit,  is  inconceivable.  No  reunion  of 
Churches  based  upon  accord  in  doctrine  has  ever  succeeded ;  the 
false  principle  of  such  an  alliance  must  sooner  or  later  manifest  itself, 
its  fruit  is  everywhere  an  increase  not  of  love  but  of  mutual  estrange- 
ment and  hatred. 

"May  God  forbid  that  we  should  condemn  one  another  because 
of  faith ;  let  each  believe  as  he  will !  But  each  man  has  a  faith 
which  is  his  refuge,  which  satisfies  his  spiritual  needs,  which  he  loves ; 
and  it  is  impossible  for  him  when  brought  into  contact  with  another 
faith  not  to  feel  that  it  is  not  his  own,  that  it  is  inhospitable  and 
cold.  Let  reason  prove,  with  abstract  arguments,  that  all  men  pray 
to  one  God.  Sentiment  is  repelled  by  reasoning  such  as  this ;  some- 
times sentiment  feels  that  in  a  strange  Church  it  prays  to  a  strange  god. 

"Many  will  laugh  at  this  sentiment,  or  condemn  it  as  superstition 
and  fanaticism.  They  will  be  wrong.  Sentiment  is  not  always  de- 
lusive, it  sometimes  expresses  truth  more  directly  and  justly  than 
reason  itself. 

"The  Protestant  Church  and  the  Protestant  faith  are  cold  and  in- 
hospitable to  Russians.  For  us  to  recognize  this  faith  would  be  bit- 
ter as  death.  This  is  a  direct  sentiment.  But  there  are  many  good 
reasons  to  justify  it.  The  following  is  one  which  especially  strikes  us 
by  its  obviousness. 


624  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"  In  the  polemics  of  theologians,  in  religious  dissensions,  in  the 
conscience  of  every  man  and  of  every  race,  one  of  the  greatest  ques- 
tions is  that  of  works.  Which  is  the  greater,  works  or  faith  ?  We 
know  that  on  this  question  the  Latin  doctrine  differs  from  the  Prot- 
estant. In  his  theological  compositions,  the  late  M.  Khomyakoff 
well  explained  how  deceptive  is  the  scholastic-absolute  treatment  of 
this  question.  Union  of  faith  with  works,  like  identity  of  words  and 
thought,  of  deeds  and  words,  is  an  ideal  unattainable  by  human  na- 
ture, as  all  things  absolute  are  unattainable — an  ideal  eternally  troub- 
ling and  eternally  alluring  the  faithful  soul.  Faith  without  works  is 
sterile.  Faith  opposed  to  works  offends  us  with  the  consciousness 
of  internal  falsehood ;  but  in  the  infinite  world  of  externals  around 
mankind  what  can  work,  what  can  any  possible  work  signify  without 
faith  ? 

"  Prove  me  thy  faith  by  thy  deeds, — a  terrible  command.  What  can 
a  believer  answer  when  his  questioner  seeks  to  recognize  the  faith  by 
the  works.  If  such  a  question  were  put  by  a  Protestant  to  a  member 
of  the  Orthodox  Church,  what  would  the  answer  be  ?  He  could  only 
hang  his  head.  He  would  feel  that  he  had  nothing  to  show,  that  all 
was  imperfect  and  disorderly.  But  in  a  minute  he  might  lift  up  his 
head  and  say :  '  We  have  nothing  to  show,  sinners  as  we  are,  yet 
neither  are  you  beyond  reproach.  Come  to  us,  live  with  us,  see  our 
faith,  study  our  sentiments,  and  you  will  learn  to  love  us.  As  for 
our  works,  you  will  see  them  such  as  they  are.'  From  such  an  an- 
swer ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  would  turn  with  a  contemptuous 
laugh.  The  truth  is  that  we  do  not  know,  and  dare  not  show  our 
works. 

"It  is  not  so  with  them.  They  can  show  their  works,  and,  to 
speak  the  truth,  they  have  much  to  show — works  and  institutions  ex- 
isting, and  preserved  for  centuries  in  perfect  order.  See,  says  the 
Catholic  Church,  what  I  mean  to  the  community  which  hears  me  and 
which  serves  me ;  which  I  created,  and  which  I  sustain.  Here  are 
works  of  love,  works  of  faith,  apostolic  works;  here  are  deeds  of 
martyrdom ;  here  are  regiments  of  believers,  united  as  one,  which  I 
send  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Is  it  not  plain  that  grace  is  in  me,  and 
has  been  in  me  from  the  beginning  until  now  ? 

' '  See,  says  the  Protestant  Church,  I  do  not  tolerate  falsehood,  de- 
ception, or  superstition.     My  works  conform  to  faith,  and  reason  is 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  625 

reconciled  with  it.  I  have  consecrated  labour,  human  relations,  and 
family  happiness  ;  by  faith  I  destroy  all  idleness  and  superstition ;  I 
establish  justice,  honesty  and  social  order.  I  teach  daily,  and  my 
doctrine  accords  with  life.  It  educates  generations  in  the  perform- 
ance of  honourable  work,  and  in  good  manners.  My  teaching  renews 
humanity  in  virtue  and  justice.  My  mission  is  to  destroy  with  the 
sword  of  words  and  deeds  corruption  and  hypocrisy  everywhere.  Is 
it  not  plain  that  the  grace  of  God  is  in  me,  since  I  see  things  from 
the  true  standpoint? 

"  To  the  present  day  Protestants  and  Catholics  contend  over  the 
dogmatic  signification  of  works  in  relation  to  faith.  But  in  spite  of 
the  total  contradiction  of  their  theological  doctrines,  both  set  works 
at  the  head  of  their  religion.  In  the  Latin  Church  works  are  the 
justification,  the  redemption,  and  the  witness  of  grace.  The  Luth- 
erans regard  works,  and,  at  the  same  time,  religion  itself,  from  the 
practical  point  of  view.  Works  for  them  are  the  end  of  religion ; 
they  are  the  touchstone  which  proves  religious  and  canonical  truth, 
and  it  is  on  this  point  more  than  on  any  other  that  our  doctrine  dif- 
fers from  the  doctrine  of  Protestantism.  It  is  true  that  these  doc- 
trines do  not  constitute  a  dogma  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  but  they 
pervade  its  teaching.  Beyond  all  dispute  they  have  an  important 
practical  value  for  this  world ;  and  therefore  many  would  set  up  the 
Protestant  Church  as  a  model  and  an  ideal  for  us.  But  the  Russian, 
in  the  depths  of  a  believing  soul,  will  never  accept  such  a  view. 
'Godliness  is  profitable  unto  all  things,'  says  the  apostle,  but  utility 
is  hardly  one  of  its  natural  attributes.  The  Russians,  as  others, 
know  that  they  ought  to  live  by  religion,  and  feel  how  ill  their  lives 
accord  with  their  beliefs ;  but  the  essence,  the  end  of  their  faith  is 
not  the  practical  life,  but  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  and  with  the 
love  of  religion  they  seek  to  embrace  all,  from  the  just  man  who  lives 
according  to  his  faith,  to  the  thief,  who,  his  works  notwithstanding, 
would  be  pardoned  in  an  instant. 

"This  practical  basis  of  Protestantism  is  nowhere  shown  more 
plainly  than  in  the  Anglican  Church,  and  in  the  religious  spirit  of 
the  English  people.  It  accords  with  the  character  of  the  nation  as 
formed  by  history  to  direct  all  thought  and  action  to  practical  aims, 
steadfastly  and  tenaciously  pursuing  success,  and  in  all  things  taking 
those  paths  and  measures  which  are  short  and  sure.     This  innate 


626  Missions  and  Modern  History 

tendency  must  seek  a  moral  base,  and  must  construct  a  system  of 
morals;  and  it  is  natural  that  these  moral  principles  shall  seek  a 
sanction  in  a  religious  spirit  corresponding  to  their  nature.  Religion 
indisputably  consecrates  the  moral  principle  of  activity;  its  precepts 
teach  us  how  to  live  and  act ;  it  demands  laboriousness,  honesty  and 
justice.  This  no  one  will  dispute.  But,  in  the  practical  considera- 
tion of  religion,  we  pass  directly  to  the  question  :  What  of  the  faith 
of  those  who  live  in  idleness,  who  are  dishonest  and  false,  corrupt 
and  disorderly,  who  cannot  control  their  passions  ?  Such  men  are 
heathen,  not  Christian;  he  only  is  a  Christian  who  lives  by  the  law, 
and  in  himself  bears  witness  to  its  power. 

"This  reasoning  is  logical  in  appearance.  But  who  has  not  asked 
the  question  :  What  is  the  part  in  the  world  and  in  the  Church  of  the 
wanton  and  dishonest,  who,  in  the  words  of  Christ,  shall  take  a 
higher  place  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  than  the  just  according  to  the 
law?" 

In  other  words,  the  Russian  Church  rests  neither  on  truth  nor  on 
righteousness,  but  on  superstition.  This  is  the  contention  of  the 
Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod,  and  it  is  but  too  fully  justified  by  the 
facts.  The  Orthodox  Russian  Church  is  the  most  unprogressive  doc- 
trinally  of  all  Christian  Churches.  It  is  fixed  and  immutable  in  its 
traditions  and  beliefs.  The  body  of  Christian  doctrine  was  eternally 
settled  by  the  Church  Councils  and  cannot  be  changed.  The  intro- 
duction and  history  of  Christianity  in  Russia  have  been  such  as  to 
condemn  the  Church  to  certain  errors  and  limitations.  The  people 
were  not  converted  to  Christianity.  They  came  over  in  obedience  to 
their  rulers.  They  were  left  out  of  the  range  of  the  influences  of 
thought  which  shaped  Europe  and  produced  the  Renaissance  and 
Protestantism.  The  Russian  has  no  part  in  the  intellectual  inherit- 
ance of  Greece  and  Rome.  As  to  the  priest  of  the  Church,  Mr. 
Heard  speaks  temperately  when  he  says  :  "  He  is  treated  with  con- 
tumely, deprived  of  all  independence,  and  drilled  to  passive  submis- 
sion ;  his  mental  culture  ceases,  perforce,  when  he  leaves  the  semi- 
nary, and  he  is  as  incapable  of  responding  to  the  religious  wants  of 
the  devout  as  he  is  of  withstanding  the  progress  of  infidelity.  De- 
spised by,  and  isolated  from,  the  community  upon  which  he  is  de- 
pendent, his  whole  life  is  a  ceaseless,  wretched  struggle  for  material 
existence ;   all  devotional  feeling  is  crushed  out  of  his  soul,  and  re- 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  627 

ligion,  for  him,  is  debased  to  mere  form  and  ceremonial,  by  which  to 
earn  a  precarious  subsistence."  '  The  Church  is  probably  less  re- 
ligious than  the  people  themselves.  It  is  a  case  of  racial  character 
maintaining  religion  in  spite  of  ecclesiastical  mechanicalism  and  po- 
litical control. 

For  the  outstanding  characteristic  of  the  Russian  monjik  is  his  re- 
ligiousness. "Outside  of  his  purely  material  interests,"  says  Dr. 
Washburn,  "religion  is  the  only  thing  he  has  to  think  about.  It  is 
only  on  this  side  that  his  character  has  had  any  chance  to  develop 
and  race  characteristics  to  show  themselves.  He  is  ignorant.  He  is 
superstitious.  He  is  often  immoral.  But  he  is  intensely  religious. 
He  believes  in  God,  in  Christ,  and  in  the  New  Testament  as  firmly  as 
he  does  in  his  own  existence,  and  if  he  is  Orthodox  he  believes  equally 
in  the  Church.  He  is  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice  or  to  die  for  his  faith, 
and  when  he  realizes  that  he  is  not  living  up  to  it  he  suffers  bitter  re- 
morse. He  is  capable  of  living  a  pure  and  noble  life,  as  we  see  in 
some  of  the  heretical  sects.  The  idea  of  expiation  for  sin  by  volun- 
tary suffering,  as  Christ  suffered  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  is  perhaps 
the  most  general  and  most  characteristic  of  all  their  religious  ideas. 
This  is  brought  out  clearly  in  most  of  the  Russian  novels.  As  the  in- 
fluence of  this  idea  can  be  better  illustrated  than  described,  I  venture 
to  quote  here  a  story  published  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  in 
1883,  and  vouched  for  by  Count  de  Vogue  as  true.  It  is  given  in 
the  words  of  the  Russian  nobleman  who  narrated  it.  It  is  somewhat 
long,  but  it  illustrates  many  things  in  Russian  life  as  well  as  the  spe- 
cial point  which  we  are  discussing  : 

" '  In  my  early  youth  I  knew  an  old  peddler  who  was  called  Uncle  Fedia. 
No  one  knew  him  by  any  other  name.  No  one  could  say  whence  he  came  nor 
whether  he  had  ever  followed  a  more  Christian  trade.  He  was  not  loved  by  the 
people,  first  because  his  trade  as  a  pedlar  was  one  which  good  Christians  leave 
to  the  Jews  and  gipsies,  and  with  his  old  flat  hat,  torn  foxskin  cloak  and  hang- 
dog look  he  was  more  like  a  vagabond  than  an  honest  Russian  peasant,  with  his 
cap,  his  sheepskin  coat,  his  frank  face,  and  smiling  lips. 

"  '  Besides  this  the  peasants  suspected  him  of  being  in  league  with  the  devil. 
He  was  accused  in  the  great  houses  of  being  a  thief,  and  by  the  officials  of  being 
a  smuggler.  There  was  never  a  drunken  brawl  in  a  tavern  that  all  the  blame 
of  it  was   not   put   upon  this  poor  stranger — although  there  was  no  evidence 

1  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  pp.  175k 


628  Missions  and  Modern  History 

against  him,  except  that  his  passport  was  not  always  in  proper  order.     The  chil 
drcn  caught  the  infection,  hooted  and  stoned  him  in  the  streets. 

" «  As  for  me,  I  always  liked  Uncle  Fedia.  He  was  connected  in  my  mind 
with  all  the  fete-days,  for  it  was  then  that  he  always  came  to  our  house  and 
opened  his  pack,  full  of  wonderful  things.  He  even  gave  me  credit  when  my 
pockets  were  empty  and  when  all  were  abusing  him.  I  often  felt  inclined  to  de- 
fend him,  but  I  was  already  old  enough  to  know  that  one  loses  his  time  defend- 
ing those  whom  the  world  condemns. 

" '  The  last  time  that  Uncle  Fedia  came  to  our  house  was  a  Sunday  in  Lent,  a 
cold,  stormy  day,  and  just  at  evening.  He  begged  to  spend  the  night  in  our 
barn,  but  my  mother  was  afraid  of  him,  and  my  father  ordered  him  off.  He 
went  away,  but  I  ran  after  him  and  told  him  that  he  could  stay  in  the  granary  of 
an  old  mill  not  far  away.  "  Thank  you,"  he  said,  "  but  the  village  is  not  far  dis- 
tant, and  if  I  am  buried  in  the  snow  before  I  get  there  no  one  will  miss  me ; 
Uncle  Fedia  counts  for  but  little  in  God's  world."  I  felt  sad,  and  was  sure  that  he 
was  not  a  bad  man.  The  next  day  I  was  ashamed  of  my  simplicity,  when  my 
father,  entering  the  room,  all  excited,  told  us  the  news  of  the  day.  "  Thank  God 
I  did  not  listen  to  you,"  he  said.  "  I  congratulate  you  on  your  prottgk."  Then 
he  told  how  the  house  of  a  neighbour,  a  man  who  had  been  hard  on  the  peas- 
ants, had  been  burnt  down  during  the  night.  My  father  had  no  doubt  that  it 
was  the  work  of  Uncle  Fedia,  and,  in  fact,  they  arrested  him  for  it  during  the 
day.  A  judicial  inquiry  was  opened,  but,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  prose- 
cutor, nothing  could  be  proved  against  him.  The  evidence  seemed  rather  to  in- 
culpate a  certain  Akoulina,  a  servant  in  the  house  of  our  unfortunate  neighbour. 
This  woman,  dismissed  in  the  night  before,  after  a  storm  of  invective,  had  reached 
her  house  the  next  morning,  and  could  not  prove  how  she  had  spent  the  night. 
The  justice  at  once  dismissed  Uncle  Fedia,  but  with  threats  and  an  order  to  quit 
the  district  at  once. 

" '  Three  months  later  the  trial  of  Akoulina  came  on,  and  crowds  were  present 
at  it.  My  father  was  called  as  a  witness,  and  consented  to  take  me  with  him  in 
the  carriage.  He  left  me  at  the  stable  with  the  horses,  and  advised  me  to  be 
patient;  but  he  had  not  counted  on  my  curiosity.  I  followed  him  to  the  court- 
room, and  there,  hidden  behind  a  corner  of  the  stone  near  the  door,  I  listened 
with  all  my  ears.  You  know  our  provincial  courts.  They  are  all  alike — a  bare 
hall,  a  double  range  of  benches,  a  platform,  a  table  for  the  judges,  and  over  their 
heads,  on  a  whitewashed  wall,  a  great  round  clock  and  a  Christ.  That  day  the 
hall  was  crowded  with  all  classes  of  people — nobles,  functionaries  and  peasants. 
There  was  the  prisoner;  a  little  behind  her  one  of  her  relatives,  amusing  two  lit- 
tle girls,  and  holding  a  new-born  baby.  All  my  attention  was  fixed  on  Akou- 
lina. She  was  young,  erect,  and  strong,  neither  pretty  nor  ugly,  but  a  true  speci- 
men of  a  Russian  girl.  She  seemed  scarcely  to  hear  what  the  clerk  was  reading 
She  looked  neither  at  the  judges  nor  at  the  crowd.  Her  eyes  were  fixed  on  the 
great  white  face  of  the  clock.  Now  and  then  she  would  suddenly  turn  to  the 
door.     She  seemed  to  expect  some  one  whom  the  hour  ought  to  bring.     The 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  629 

prosecutor  read  the  evidence.  It  was  overwhelming.  The  husband  of  Akoulina 
had  lately  died,  a  drunkard.  She  remained  a  widow  with  three  children,  and 
had  always  had  the  reputation  of  being  ugly  and  unmanageable.  Dismissed  and 
beaten  for  her  insolence  by  the  lady  of  Ivanofka,  she  had  left  the  house  with 
threats  of  vengeance  only  a  few  days  before  the  fire.  She  had  repeated  the  in- 
variable menace  of  our  peasants — "  I  will  let  loose  the  red  cock."  In  the  even- 
ing she  had  said  the  same  thing  to  a  man  of  whom  she  had  bought  a  bundle  of 
straw.  Then  she  had  disappeared.  The  next  day  she  returned  to  her  house 
worn  out  with  fatigue,  covered  with  mud,  and  without  her  straw,  appearing  to 
ignore  the  fire  which  had  occurred  in  the  night.  She  declared  that  she  had 
taken  her  straw  to  a  certain  isolated  barn  belonging  to  her  cousin,  Anton  Petro- 
vitch,  who  had  quitted  the  country  immediately  after  and  shipped  as  a  sailor  at 
Odessa.  But  the  absence  of  this  witness  was  considered  of  little  importance  by 
the  court,  and  the  prosecutor  concluded  by  demanding  the  condemnation  of 
Akoulina  and  her  deportation  to  the  mines  of  Siberia.  Many  witnesses  were  ex- 
amined, but  without  eliciting  anything  favourable.  The  peasants  all  maintained 
that  attitude  which  is  invariable  to 'them  in  a  court  of  justice.  They  trembled; 
they  eluded  every  direct  question.  They  knew  nothing.  They  made  no 
charges,  and  said  nothing  which  could  possibly  compromise  themselves. 
One  old  woman  alone  had  the  courage  to  say  that  Akoulina  was  killing 
herself  with  hard  work,  that  her  three  children  were  angels  of  the  good 
Lord,  and  that  it  would  be  hard  for  them  to  have  their  mother  sent  to 
Siberia. 

" '  The  advocate  assigned  to  Akoulina— a  little  beardless  blonde,  abashed  by 
the  presence  of  so  many  grandees — simply  appealed  to  the  pity  of  the  court,  and 
then  made  a  speech  on  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  which  ought,  he  said,  to  se- 
cure harmony  among  the  different  classes.  Akoulina  paid  no  attention  to  what 
was  going  on.  Her  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  clock  and  the  door.  It  was  plain 
that  only  one  single  idea  occupied  her  mind.  A  word  from  her  cousin  Anton 
Petrovitch  could  save  her,  and  she  could  only  be  saved  if  Anton  entered  the  door 
and  said  the  word.  Every  one  said  that  Anton  was  lost,  but  she  expected  his  ar- 
rival as  by  a  miracle.  As  the  hands  of  the  clock  moved  on,  her  feverish  anxiety 
increased.  The  judge  interrogated  her  for  the  last  time.  She  had  but  one 
answer  ;  "  Let  them  bring  Anton  Petrovitch,  and  he  will  say  so."  She  said  it 
with  such  an  accent  of  sincerity  that  it  touched  many  hearts,  in  spite  of  the  evi- 
dence accumulated  against  her.  Even  the  judge  was  evidently  moved ;  but 
what  could  he  do  unless  Anton  should  appear  by  a  miracle  ?  And  then  the  chil- 
dren ;  it  was  heart-rending ;  they  were  playing  so  quietly,  intimidated  by  the 
crowd,  but  full  of  sweet  innocence.  Involuntarily  the  judge  had  turned  more 
than  once  to  look  at  them. 

" '  When  the  sentence  was  read  Akoulina  fell  to  the  ground,  but  stretching  her 
hands  towards  her  children.  Then,  crouched  on  the  floor,  overcome  with  weep- 
ing, lifting  her  hands  and  eyes  to  the  Christ  on  the  wall,  she  burst  out :  "  Christ, 
my  Lord,  save  me !     O  Saviour,  have  mercy  on  my  children !     Have  pity  on 


630  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Thy  servant !  "  Moved  by  the  cry,  all  the  peasants  involuntarily  rose,  kneeled 
down,  and  made  the  sign  of  the  Cross.  My  heart  was  breaking.  It  was  the 
stillness  of  death.  It  was  the  clock  which  broke  the  silence,  slowly  tolling  out 
the  hour  of  twelve.  It  was  a  funeral  knell  which  moved  every  heart.  The 
sound  roused  Akoulina  ;  she  rose  to  her  feet  and  cast  one  despairing  look  at  the 
door.  All  eyes  followed  her,  as  if  Anton  was  about  to  appear.  I  looked  eagerly 
myself.  The  door  did  not  open,  but,  to  my  astonishment,!  saw  near  it  a  foxskin 
cloak,  with  its  meagre  folds  and  its  odour  of  cold  and  snow  which  I  well  knew. 
Uncle  Fedia  had  entered  a  moment  before  and  was  crouching  behind  me.  His 
little  eyes  wandered  timidly  over  the  audience,  from  the  judge  to  the  accused, 
then  rested  on  the  children.  When  the  judge  began  again  to  read  the  sentence, 
Uncle  Fedia  scratched  his  head  and  coughed  with  an  absent  air.  He  looked 
at  the  children,  at  the  Christ,  and  suddenly,  with  great  care  not  to  touch  any  one, 
he  advanced  with  timid  steps  into  the  empty  passageway  before  the  judge. 
Then  he  knelt  down,  made  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  and  took  off  his  hat.  "  What  do 
you  want  ?  "  said  the  judge,  interrupting  his  reading.  Uncle  Fedia  answered  with 
a  humble  and  scarcely  audible  voice  :  "  Pardon  me,  my  judge,  but  this  woman 
is  not  guilty.  I  am  the  sinner.  I  set  the  fire."  The  magistrate  looked  at  him 
with  astonishment.  They  thought  he  was  mad.  They  asked  his  name.  The 
name  excited  the  attention  of  the  audience  and  suggested  something  to  the  judges. 
They  questioned  him.  He  declared  that  he  had  slept  at  the  mill.  He  had  met 
Akoulina  going  to  the  house  of  Anton  Petrovitch.  After  midnight  he  had  se- 
cretly left  the  mill,  reached  Ivanofka,  and  set  fire  to  the  stables.  He  had  long 
meditated  this  revenge  for  the  beating  he  had  received  there  last  year.  When 
they  reminded  him  of  his  former  denials,  he  demanded  whether  they  had  not 
found  at  Ivanofka  a  pot  of  tar  with  a  certain  mark.  He  had  bought  this  the  day 
before,  as  they  could  easily  learn.  Such  a  pot  had  been  found,  and  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  judges  gave  way  to  a  new  feeling,  in  which  the  audience  evidently 
shared.  Perhaps  this  readiness  to  condemn  him  arose  from  a  secret  desire  to 
save  Akoulina.  We  were  all  quite  ready  to  believe  that  the  criminal  was  this 
vagabond  whom  we  had  first  suspected.  Was  it  not  divine  justice  which  now 
forced  him  to  acknowledge  his  guilt?  A  feeling  of  joy  and  satisfaction  took  the 
place  of  the  anguish  which  we  had  felt  before. 

"'The  judge  invited  Uncle  Fedia  to  repeat  his  confession  under  oath.  He 
seemed  to  hesitate  for  a  moment,  but  raising  his  eyes  to  the  Christ,  he  took  the 
oath.  He  was  condemned  and  stood  solitary  and  alone  in  the  midst,  his  eyes 
fixed  on  the  floor,  overwhelmed  with  the  universal  reprobation.  I  acknowledge 
that,  while  I  had  to  confess  to  myself  that  my  old  friend  was  guilty,  I  suffered  for 
him.  He  was  sent  to  the  mines  of  Siberia  for  ten  years,  and  I  slipped  some 
roubles  into  his  hands,  and  said,  "  Good-bye,  Uncle  Fedia."  "  Thank  you,  my 
child,"  he  whispered.  "  It  is  nothing.  No  one  will  be  troubled  about  it."  I  re- 
membered then  that  he  had  said  the  same  thing  when  I  had  last  seen  him.  Outside 
the  peasants  surrounded  Akoulina  and  overwhelmed  her  with  felicitations.  She 
could  only  repeat :     "  The  Lord  be  praised.     O  the  cursed  gipsy  who  wished  to 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  631 

destroy  an  innocent  woman  !  "  They  took  her  in  triumph  to  the  village,  and  at 
night  they  had  grand  rejoicings  at  the  tavern. 

"'  It  was  years  after  this  that,  one  morning,  we  saw  the  priest  running  breath- 
less into  our  garden.  "O  God !"  he  cried.  "O  the  justice  of  God  !  If  you 
only  knew  what  has  happened."  "  I  know,"  said  my  father;  "  Ivan  has  killed 
himself  by  falling  from  his  ladder.  It  is  a  good  thing  for  the  village.  He  was  a 
savage."  "  Oh  !  "  said  the  priest,  "  but  you  do  not  know  the  most  terrible  of  all. 
This  man,  when  dying,  confessed  to  me  his  secret.  '  Father,'  said  he,  '  I  am  a 
great  sinner.  It  was  I  who  burned  Ivanofka  to  revenge  myself  on  the  proprietor 
for  sending  my  son  into  the  army.'  '  What  do  you  mean  ?  '  I  said.  '  It  was  the 
peddler  Fedia  who  did  it,  and  is  now  suffering  for  it.'  *  No,  Father,'  he  replied, '  it 
was  I.  He  slept  in  my  barn  that  night,  and  sold  me  the  pot  of  tar  with  which  I 
set  the  fire.  I  am  sure  that  he  suspected  me.  The  day  of  the  trial  of  Akoulina 
he  came  to  me  and  said  :  "  It  is  a  sad  pity.  To-day  they  are  going  to  condemn 
Akoulina,  who  is  innocent."  I  threatened  him,  and  he  went  away  trembling. 
No  doubt  he  had  pity  upon  the  poor  children,  and  gave  himself  up  to  save  them, 

while   I '     And  just  then  he  died  unforgiven."     When  we  heard  all  this 

we  brought  the  priest  to  the  Governor.  He  wrote  to  Siberia ;  but  when  the  re- 
ply came  it  said :  "  Who  can  find  your  Fedia  in  Siberia,  as  though  there  was 
only  one  vagabond  of  that  name  ?  Within  a  year  two  Fedias  have  died  at  the 
hospital  at  Tomsk  and  three  at  Tobolsk,  without  speaking  of  others.  We  know 
nothing  about  him." 

"  '  When  it  was  known  in  the  village  that  we  had  accomplished  nothing 
Akoulina  brought  a  basket  of  eggs  to  the  priest  and  begged  him  to  celebrate  a 
service  for  the  soul  of  poor  Uncle  Fedia.  We  all  went  to  the  church.  Never 
did  I  pray  so  sincerely.  I  understood  for  the  first  time  then  what  was  read  in 
the  Gospel  of  that  day  :  "  As  Thou  hast  sent  Me  into  the  world,  even  so  have  1 
sent  them  into  the  world."  I  understood  it  when  I  thought  of  the  humble  figure 
of  poor  Uncle  Fedia,  trembling  in  his  foxskin  coat  in  the  midst  of  the  court,  with 
the  scowling  faces  all  around  him.  Those  who  abused  him  then  weep  now  when 
they  think  of  this  despised  brother  dead  in  the  hospital  of  Tomsk  or  Tobolsk, 
or  no  one  knows  where — outcast,  alone,  and  uncared  for.' 

"This  pathetic  story  needs  no  comment,"  adds  Dr.  Washburn. 
"  We  find  other  types  of  this  same  religious  spirit  in  almost  all  Rus- 
sian novels,  and  the  religious  vagaries  of  Tolstoi  are  hardly  original 
with  him.  They  reflect  the  ideas  of  the  moujik.  Some  years  ago 
the  editor  of  a  St.  Petersburg  review  published  his  recollections  of  the 
life  of  Sutaieff,  a  peasant  of  Tver,  whom  he  had  personally  known. 
This  poor  man  spent  a  number  of  years  as  a  stone- breaker  in  the 
streets  of  St.  Petersburg.  He  made  good  wages,  but  he  had  a  heavy 
heart.  His  conscience  gave  him  no  rest.  He  went  to  an  Orthodox 
priest  for  comfort,  and  this  priest  advised  him  to  read  the  Gospels. 


632  Missions  and  Modern  History 

He  bought  an  alphabet  and  a  Bible,  and  with  great  difficulty  he 
learned  to  read.  As  he  read  a  new  world  opened  before  him.  He 
felt  that  the  world  in  which  he  lived  was  not  the  world  of  the  Gospels, 
not  a  world  of  righteousness  and  love.  He  went  back  to  his  native 
village,  and  first  of  all  distributed  the  whole  of  the  1,500  roubles 
which  he  had  saved  among  his  poor  neighbours.  He  had  also  some 
notes  for  money  which  he  had  loaned  on  interest.  These  he  destroyed. 
Then  he  began  to  read  the  Bible  to  his  family,  and  to  teach  them  how 
to  live  this  life  of  love.  Then  he  taught  it  to  his  neighbours.  Before 
he  died  he  had  about  a  thousand  followers — all  trying  like  himself  to 
realize  the  kingdom  of  God  in  their  village  life.  They  were  nat- 
urally persecuted  by  the  Government,  which  does  not  encourage 
independent  thought  even  in  those  who,  like  Sutaieff,  hold  the  doc- 
trine that  it  is  wrong  to  resist  any  man  by  force,  who  offer  but  a  pas- 
sive resistance  to  oppression,  and  who  are  always  ready  for  martyrdom. 
The  editor  of  the  review  exhorted  Sutaieff  to  be  cautious  and  prudent, 
but  he  replied  :  '  The  Gospel  tells  me —  Go  and  preach  ;  they  will 
persecute  you  ;  they  will  bring  you  before  courts.  I  do  not  fear  the 
courts.  Why  should  I  ?  They  will  throw  me  into  prison  ;  they  will 
exile  me ;  but  I  shall  find  everywhere  men  to  whom  I  can  preach  the 
truth.  Here,  or  in  the  Caucasus,  or  anywhere ;  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence. God  is  everywhere.  I  do  not  fear  those  who  destroy  my 
body.  I  fear  only  the  loss  of  my  soul.  If  they  bury  me  alive  I  shall 
not  tremble.  I  wish  to  suffer  for  Christ.'  Here  is  a  poor  peasant 
in  the  depths  of  Russia  with  the  spirit  of  John  Huss,  the  great  Slavic 
reformer;  and  he  is  not  alone.  He  is  a  type.  He  illustrates  in 
many  ways  the  character  of  the  mouj'ik.  He  is  not  simply  religious. 
He  not  only  accepts  the  New  Testament  as  the  Word  of  God,  but  is 
ready  to  follow  its  teachings  to  the  letter  as  he  understands  it,  and  to 
die  for  it  if  necessary.  This  is  true,  not  only  of  the  heretical  sects 
like  the  Stundists,  but  of  the  orthodox  as  well.  The  spirit  is  the 
same.  They  differ  only  in  their  conception  of  what  Christianity 
demands  of  them."  ' 

This  is  the  spirit  of  the  common  people  in  the  great  race  which 
claims  that  its  mission  is  just  beginning.  Dr.  Washburn  says  the 
spirit  of  intense  religiousness  is  found  both  among  the  Orthodox  and 

1  Contemporary  Review,  Art.,  "  The  Coming  of  the  Slav,"  January,  1898, 
pp.  4-10. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  633 

in  the  dissenting  sects.  It  is  in  the  latter  and  in  the  attitude  of  the 
Government  towards  them  that  we  may  find  some  light  upon  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  this  expansion  of  Russia  to  the  missionary 
enterprise. 

According  to  The  Statesman's  Year  Book,  "there  are  no  exact 
figures  as  to  the  numbers  of  adherents  of  different  creeds — many 
dissenters  being  inscribed  under  the  head  of  Greek  Orthodox  ;  they 
are  only  estimated  as  follows  : — Orthodox  Greek  Catholics,  exclusive 
of  the  army  and  navy,  seventy-one  per  cent. ;  United  Church  and 
Armenians,  one  per  cent. ;  Roman  Catholics,  nine  per  cent.  ;  Prot- 
estants, five  per  cent. ;  Jews,  three  per  cent. ;  Mohammedans,  nine 
per  cent.  :  others,  two  per  cent."  ' 

The  Quarterly  Register  for  November,  1897,  contained  an  article 
on  "The  Religious  Movement  in  Russia,"  by  Ivan  Kochanoff,  a 
Stundist  exile,  in  which  he  gave  the  following  estimate : 

Greek  Orthodox  Church 75,000,000 

Lutherans,  Roman  Catholics,  Mohammedans,  Jews,  Buddhists,  15,000,000 

Staroveri,      10,000,000 

Khlysti,  Skoptsy,  and  others, 3,000,000 

Molokani, 3,000,000 

Doukhobortsi, 30,000 

Stundists  of  various  parties,    .    .        300,000 

The  largest  body  of  the  "Rascol,"  i.  e.,  "the  split"  or  "Dis- 
senters," is  the  Staroveri  or  Old  Believers,  who  oppose  innovation 
and  change.  They  resisted  the  reforms  of  Nikon,  and  were  outraged 
at  the  course  of  Peter  the  Great  in  introducing  foreign  customs  and 
ideas.  "  The  Old  Believers  were,  and  are  still,  upholders  of  ancient 
usages,  as  well  as  of  ancient  creeds  ;  they  are  old  Russians,  Slavo- 
philes, in  the  fullest  sense,  Asiatic,  Oriental  in  their  opposition  to 
change  or  progress  ;  they  still  look  back  to  the  days  of  their  fathers  as 
the  golden  age,  and  see  no  hope  nor  encouragement  in  what  the 
future  may  have  to  offer.  This  spirit,  which  has  always  been  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  Russian  people  generally,  has,  nurtured  and  fostered 
by  religious  enthusiasm,  been  one  of  the  strongest  influences  against 
which  modern  civilization,  aided  by  Government  support,  has  had  to 
contend.     It  explains  in  some  degree  the  crude  revolutionary  move- 

1  The  Statesman's  Year  Book,  1902,  p.  987. 


634  Missions  and  Modern  History 

ments  which  have  at  times  temporarily  disturbed  the  empire.  Igno- 
rant and  fanatical  opposition  to  authority  has  frequently  led  to  impa- 
tience of  all  control,  political  or  moral,  and  given  rise  to  the  wildest 
theories  of  socialism  and  communism."  '  Some  of  the  Rascol  sects 
have  gone  to  extremes  of  immorality  or  fanaticism.  "  The  '  Dieto- 
oubiisti,'  or  Child-killers,  felt  it  a  religious  duty  to  slay  new-born 
infants,  in  order  that  their  souls,  innocent  of  sin,  might  be  sure  of 
heaven  without  risk  of  damnation  ;  some  known  as  Stranglers,  or 
Fellers  (Doushilstchiki,  or  Tioukalstchiki),  conceived  that  a  violent 
death  was  the  true  way  of  salvation,  pleading  in  grim  earnestness  that 
'  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence ;  the  violent  take  it  by 
force,'  and  piously  dispatched  their  relatives  and  friends  by  strangu- 
lation or  blows,  in  case  of  mortal  illness ;  others,  who  were  very 
numerous  in  the  early  days  of  the  Rascol,  the  Philipovtsi,  disciples 
of  one  Philip,  who  were  also  called  Burners  (Sojigateli),  preached 
redemption  by  suicide  and  purification  by  fire.  In  the  wilds  of 
Siberia  and  in  the  Ural  Mountains  hundreds,  whole  families  at  a  time, 
threw  themselves  into  the  flames  of  their  burning  houses,  kindled  by 
their  own  hands,  or  offered  themselves  up  on  funeral  pyres,  with 
prayers  and  songs,  as  a  holocaust  unto  the  Lord."2  Excessive  as 
many  of  these  developments  have  been,  they  testify  to  the  profound 
religiousness  of  the  people.  Outside  the  Rascol  are  erratic  sects  like 
the  Khlysti  or  Flagellants,  the  Skoptsi  or  Eunuchs,  and  the  Shakounis 
or  Jumpers,  on  one  hand,  and  the  reformatory,  Protestant  sects  of 
the  Doukhobortsi,  or  Champions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Molokanis 
or  Milk  Drinkers,  and  the  Stundists.  The  Doukhobortsi  are  well 
known  through  the  immigration  of  a  large  company  of  them  to 
Canada.  The  Molokanis  are  found  for  the  most  part  in  the  Caucasus. 
They  have  no  priesthood.  Their  elders  are  chosen  by  themselves, 
have  no  priestly  character  or  garb,  and  read  and  expound  the  Bible 
to  them.     Mr.  Heard  describes  their  earnest  ways  : 

" '  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and 
in  truth;'  this  is  the  fundamental  maxim  of  their  creed,  which  they  apply  and 
follow  out  with  the  inflexible  logic  of  the  Russian  peasant.  All  ceremonious 
observances  during  prayer,  the  repeated  cross-signing,  the  '  Pokloni '  or  genu- 

1  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  p.  196. 
9  Ibid.,  pp.  2031. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  635 

flexions  and  prostrations,  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  Rascolnik  and  the  Orthodox, 
they  abstain  from  ;  the  holy  images,  which  all,  save  the  most  fanatic  of  the 
Bexpopovtsi,  worship  and  revere,  they  deny  as  useless,  unmeaning  symbols. 
'  God  is  a  Spirit,'  they  repeat, '  and  images  are  but  idols.  A  picture  is  not  Christ ; 
it  is  but  a  bit  of  painted  board.  We  believe  in  Christ,  not  a  Christ  of  brass,  nor 
of  silver,  nor  of  gold,  the  work  of  men's  hands,  but  in  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
Saviour  of  the  world.' 

"  Their  idea  of  a  Church  is  according  to  the  words  of  Christ :  '  Where  two  or 
three  are  gathered  together  in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them.' 
They  have  no  sacred  edifices.  '  Solomon  built  himself  a  house,  but  the  Al- 
mighty dwells  not  in  temples  made  by  the  hands  of  men ; '  '  the  heart  of  man  is 
God's  only  temple.' 

"  Their  services  are  simple  and  plain ;  they  meet  at  each  other's  houses  to 
listen  to  the  Scriptures,  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  sing  Psalms. 

"  They  acknowledge  the  sacraments  only  in  their  spiritual  sense ;  while  they 
meet  and  break  bread  together  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Last  Supper,  they  do 
so  in  commemoration  of  the  event,  and  attach  no  religious  or  mysterious  sig- 
nificance to  the  act.  '  The  true  communion  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is,' 
they  say,  '  to  read  and  meditate  upon  His  Word;  all  else  is  vanity.' 

"  Of  baptism  they  declare :  '  We  understand,  not  the  earthly  water,  but  the 
spiritual  cleansing  of  our  souls  from  sin  in  faith,  and  the  destruction  of  the  old 
Adam  within  us,  with  all  his  works.' 

"  Of  confession :  '  We  hold  by  Paul ;  confess  your  sins  one  to  another,  and 
pray  for  one  another;  anything  further  we  do  not  allow.' 

"  Regarding  prayers  for  the  dead  they  are  silent. 

"  These  statements  are  taken  from  confessions  of  faith,  drawn  up,  not  for  their 
own  use,  but  for  their  justification  with  the  Government,  and  may  be  liable  to 
suspicion  in  some  particulars,  but  they  are  corroborated  by  what  can  be  ascer- 
tained of  their  practices.  The  conclusion  of  their  profession  is  thoroughly 
Protestant  in  its  character.  '  Besides  the  Holy  Sacraments,  we  accept  the  Word 
of  God  and  inward  faith  as  our  guides.  We  do  not  consider  ourselves  as  not 
sinful,  nor  as  holy,  but  work  out  our  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,  in 
the  hope  of  attaining  it  solely,  and  alone,  through  belief  in  Jesus  Christ,  the 
only  begotten  Son  of  God,  and  the  fulfillment  of  the  commands  of  the  Lord ;  we 
have  no  power  of  ourselves  to  affect  this,  but  obtain  it  only  through  living  faith 
in  our  Intercessor  and  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ.'  "  ' 

The  Stundists  derive  their  name  from  "  Stunden  "  or  leisure  hour, 
which  they  devote  to  the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  movement  grew 
out  from  the  German  Lutheran  communities  in  southwestern  Russia, 
and  represents   a   simple   and   ignorant,    but   earnest   and   devoted 

1  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  pp.  275^ 


636  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Protestantism.1  To  think  that  Russia  is  a  solid  unit  religiously  is 
greatly  to  err.  The  Orthodox  Church  is  seamed  with  heresy  and 
error,  and  the  spirit  of  life  is  stirring  in  the  remotest  corners  of  the 
Empire.  The  human  mind  must  work  on  something,  and  shut  off 
from  politics,  and  science,  in  remote  forest-valleys  or  on  lonely 
steppes,  the  Russian  peasant  thinks  on  religion,  and  he  does  not 
always  think  in  the  moulds  of  the  Orthodox  Church. 

"The  sects  of  which  mention  has  been  made,"  says  Mr.  Heard, 
"  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  recently  brought  to  light.  The  vitality 
and  persistent  energy  of  the  sectarian  spirit  are  remarkable,  inasmuch 
as  most  of  the  causes  provoking  its  manifestation  either  exist  no 
longer,  or  are  rapidly  disappearing.  Effects,  however,  are  often  per- 
ceived after  the  first  impulse  has  ceased  to  act.  Sect  begets  sect,  as 
the  plant  is  produced  by  its  yearly  seed.  It  is  hopeless  to  expect  to 
stifle  the  spiritual  aspirations  of  a  vigorous,  quick-witted,  eager  race, 
and  to  arrive  at  the  dead  level  of  unity  of  faith  and  obedience  to 
one  Church,  which  the  Emperor  Nicholas  conceived  to  be  the  consum- 
mation most  devoutly  to  be  wished  ;  nor  is  such  an  achievement  de- 
sirable ;  but  to  check  the  extravagances  resulting  from  superstition 
and  ignorance,  to  direct  the  restless  spirit  of  the  people  to  proper 
channels  and  towards  a  legitimate  end,  demands  wide  diffusion  of 
education  and  knowledge,  for  '  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion  '  ; 
moreover,  the  gap  still  yawning  between  the  extremes  of  Russian 
society  must  be  bridged  over  by  liberal  measures,  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  and  requirements  of  the  age.  It  is  a  work  of  time  and 
patience,  for  the  Russian  people  are  tenacious  and  slow  to  change. 
The  century  and  a  half,  since  the  days  of  Peter  the  Great,  have  not 
sufficed  to  cement  the  nation  together  as  a  homogeneous  whole,  and 
less  than  a  generation  has  elapsed  since  the  abolition  of  serfdom  in- 
augurated the  present  era  of  reform. 

"  In  further  explanation  of  the  present  mental  state  of  the  Russian 
people,  and  for  better  comprehension  of  the  continued  eccentric, 
fantastic  manifestations  of  a  religious  character,  it  may  be  observed 
that  while  the  ultimate  results  of  the  thorough  transformation  of 
national  life,  still  progressing,  will  be  to  calm  and  pacify  the  agita- 

1  Wallace,  Russia,  Chs.  XIX,  XX  ;  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian 

The 
Art., 


Dissent,  Chs.  IX,  X,  XI;    The  Missions  of  the  World,  July,  1894,  Art.,  "The 
Stundists   in  Russia";   Missionary   Review   of  the   World,  March,   1894,. 


"Stundism  in  Russia." 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  637 

tion  which  it  excites,  for  the  time  being  it  tends  to  encourage  and 
stimulate  aspirations  for  new  things,  and  these  aspirations,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  character  of  the  race,  invariably  assume  religious  guise 
and  expression.  Although  socialistic  ideas,  and  tendencies  of  an 
economic  and  practical  nature,  are  engrafted  upon  the  doctrinal 
teachings  of  many  of  the  new  sects,  there  is  among  the  people  a 
deep-seated,  devotional  craving  which  the  formalism  of  the  Rascol, 
and  the  rigidity  of  the  State  Church  with  its  official  clergy,  fail  to 
satisfy,  which  inevitably  finds  relief  in  new  creeds  and  more  spiritual 
religions,  and  to  which  education  only  can  give  intelligent  direc- 
tion." ' 

Towards  all  this  dissent  which  has  flourished  in  Russia  for  cen- 
turies, the  Government  has  pursued  no  uniform  policy.  Some  czars 
have  persecuted,  and  some  have  tolerated.  The  general  theory  has 
been  that  as  there  was  one  Government  there  must  be  one  Church, 
and  during  the  reign  of  Pobedonostseff  as  Procurator,  this  theory  has 
been  ardently  followed.  The  Stundists  have  been  forced  into  voluntary 
exile,  or  sent  off  to  Siberia.  In  previous  times  the  Government  had 
transported  the  Molokanis  and  Doukhobortsi  in  the  hope  of  isolat- 
ing them  and  breaking  up  their  influence,  but  their  industry  and 
economy  have  made  their  new  settlements,  in  the  case  of  the  Molo- 
kanis, more  prosperous  than  those  of  their  neighbours.  Towards  all 
of  the  Russian  dissenting  sects  the  attitude  of  the  State  has  been  in 
principle  hostile.  The  theory  on  which  it  pursues  this  course  while 
acting  so  tolerantly  towards  Mohammedanism  in  Asia,  is  set  forth  by 
Mr.  Wallace: 

"To  Russian  conceptions  there  are  two  kinds  of  heresy,  distin- 
guished from  each  other  not  by  the  doctrines  held,  but  by  the 
nationality  of  the  holder.  It  seems  to  a  Russian  in  the  nature  of 
things  that  Tartars  should  be  Mohammedans,  that  Poles  should  be 
Roman  Catholics,  and  that  Germans  should  be  Protestants ;  and  the 
mere  act  of  becoming  a  Russian  subject  is  not  supposed  to  lay  the 
Tartar,  the  Pole,  or  the  German  under  any  obligation  to  change  his 
faith.  These  nationalities  are  therefore  allowed  the  most  perfect 
freedom  in  the  exercise  of  their  respective  religions,  so  long  as  they 
refrain  from  disturbing  by  propagandism  the  divinely-established 
order  of  things.  This  is  the  received  theory,  and  we  must  do  the 
1  Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  pp.  292^ 


638  Missions  and  Modem  History 

Russians  the  justice  to  say  that  they  habitually  act  up  to  it.  If  the 
Government  has  sometimes  attempted  to  convert  alien  races,  the 
motive  has  always  been  political,  and  the  efforts  have  never  awakened 
much  sympathy  among  the  people  at  large,  or  even  among  the  clergy. 
In  like  manner  the  missionary  societies  which  have  sometimes  been 
formed  in  imitation  of  the  Western  nations  have  never  received  much 
popular  support.  Thus  with  regard  to  aliens  this  peculiar  theory 
has  led  to  very  extensive  religious  toleration.  Tartars,  Poles,  and 
Germans  are  in  a  certain  sense  heretics,  but  their  heresy  is  natural 
and  justifiable.  With  regard  to  the  Russians  themselves  the  theory 
has  had  a  very  different  effect.  If  in  the  nature  of  things  the  Tar- 
tar is  a  Mohammedan,  the  Pole  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  the  German  a 
Protestant,  it  is  equally  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  Russian  should 
be  a  member  of  the  Orthodox  Church.  On  this  point  the  written 
law  and  public  opinion  are  in  perfect  accord.  If  an  Orthodox  Rus- 
sian becomes  a  Roman  Catholic  or  a  Protestant,  his  heresy  is  not  of 
■the  same  kind  as  that  of  the  Pole  or  the  German.  No  matter  how 
pure  and  elevated  his  motives  may  be,  his  change  of  religion  is  not 
justifiable;  on  the  contrary,  he  is  amenable  to  the  criminal  law,  and 
is  at  the  same  time  condemned  by  public  opinion  as  an  apostate — 
almost  a  traitor."  ] 

There  have,  accordingly,  been  no  missions  from  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity tolerated  in  Russia.  The  Roman  Catholics  and  Lutherans 
have  been  recognized  as  having  certain  rights,  but  among  these  the 
right  of  proselytizing  from  the  Orthodox  Church  has  not  been  ad- 
mitted. The  most  careful  watch  is  maintained  over  passports  to 
keep  Protestant  ministers  from  doing  more  than  travel  through  the 
country.  Even  among  the  Armenians,  Nestorians  and  Protestant 
sects  of  the  Caucasus  no  missionaries  are  able  to  reside.  The  one 
agency  which  may  exert  an  upheaving  influence,  and  which  Russia 
has  endured  has  been  the  work  of  Bible  distribution.2  The  Greek 
Church  has  never  taken  the  Roman  view  of  the  Scriptures  and  denied 
them  to  the  common  people.  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
has  been  allowed  to  work  in  Russia,  and  there  is  a  society  for  the 
circulation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  Russia  to  which  the  American 

1  Wallace,  Russia,  pp.  304^ 

9  For  an  interesting  account  of  the  condition  fifty  years  ago  see   The  Church 
Missionary  Intelligencer,  1 864,  pp.  85-89. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  639 

Bible  Society  until  1898  had  made  annual  grants  for  many  years. 
The  Religious  Tract  Society  of  London  for  a  good  part  of  the  last 
century  carried  on  an  extensive  work  in  cooperation  with  a  local 
committee  in  St.  Petersburg.  Bitter  opposition  was  aroused,  how- 
ever, and  Colonel  Poschkoff,  who  was  president  of  the  committee, 
was  banished.  Bible  and  tract  distribution  is  still  carried  on,  how- 
ever, both  at  St.  Petersburg  and  on  the  Amur. 

If,  then,  the  Russian  dream  is  a  great  Slav  Empire  extending  from 
Germany  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  Arctic  Sea  to  Persia  and 
India,  or  even  to  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  if  the 
Church  is  a  department  of  State  and  one  of  its  bonds  of  unity,  so 
that  each  citizen  should  be  a  member  of  the  Church,  and  if  in  Russia 
there  is  the  least  possible  teleration  of  any  departure  from  the  Ortho- 
dox faith,  what  is  likely  to  be  the  attitude  of  Russia  towards  Chris- 
tian missions  in  those  parts  of  Asia  which  she  absorbs  ? 

This  has  been  a  practical  question  to  the  missionaries  in  Turkey, 
Persia  and  Manchuria,  and  at  times  the  missionaries  in  Korea  have 
feared  that  it  may  be  a  practical  question  to  them.  If  Japan  pre- 
vails the  problem  will  disappear  where  her  influence  extends,1  but 
what  attitude  would  Russia  take  towards  these  missions.2 

1 "  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  warning  that  Japan  stands  eagerly 
waiting  to  take  the  leadership  of  the  East ;  and  that  if  she  does  so,  it  will  be  in 
the  spirit  of  the  East  against  the  West.  Whether  or  not  it  is  the  destiny  of  Ja- 
pan to  be  the  leader  of  the  East  remains  to  be  unfolded.  But  if  ever  that  respon- 
sibility shall  be  hers,  of  one  thing  the  world  may  be  sure.  She  will  not  willingly 
retrace  her  own  steps ;  and  she  will  at  least  endeavour  to  persuade  the  East  to 
do  what  she  has  done  herself,  and  what  she  is  trying  to  do  more  perfectly. 

"  The  object  of  the  war  then,  on  the  part  of  Japan,  is  the  security  of  the  empire 
and  the  permanent  peace  of  the  East.  It  is  carried  on  in  the  interests  of  justice, 
humanity,  and  the  commerce  and  civilization  of  the  world  "  (From  interview  with 
Count  Katsura,  Japanese  Prime  Minister,  Japan  Mail,  May  27,  1904). 

2  "  It  is  a  little  singular  that  Russia,  among  all  her  conquests,  has  never  yet  had 
to  face  the  questions  of  how  to  deal  with  Protestant  missionaries  already  estab- 
lished in  territory  that  she  has  conquered.  Russian  officials  have  come  in  con- 
tact, of  course,  with  the  Scottish  and  Irish  Presbyterian,  and  the  Danish  Luth- 
eran missionaries  in  Manchuria.  During  the  Turkish  war  of  1877-78,  the  Rus- 
sians encountered  American  missionaries  at  work  in  Bulgaria  and  in  Asiatic  Tur- 
key. In  each  case,  they  were,  on  the  whole,  courteous  and  made  no  attempt  to 
interfere.  In  Manchuria,  the  Russian  officers  have  been  quite  like  comrades  to 
the  Protestant  medical  missionaries.  In  Asiatic  Turkey,  the  annexation  of  the 
Turkish  province  of  Kars  to  Russia  carried  with  it  the  Armenian  Protestants 
who  had  been  taught  by  American  missionaries.  Perhaps  this  one  case  throws 
some  light  upon  the  course  which  Russian  officials  may  follow  towards  Protestant 
missions  found  in  any  land  of  their  conquest.  Kars  was  an  outstation  of  Erzroum, 
which  remained  a  Turkish  possession.     The  Protestants  living  at  Kars    were 


640  Missions  and  Modern  History 

1.  The  missionaries  in  Turkey  have  always  feared  that  if  Russia 
should  come  their  work  would  have  to  cease.  During  the  Armenian 
massacres  The  Independent  (February  13,  1896)  ventured  to  express 
the  view  that  the  horror  of  the  massacres  or  at  least  the  continuance 
of  them  for  a  little  longer  time  might  in  the  end  be  a  lesser  evil 
than  the  entrance  of  Russia : 

"  It  may  be  just  as  well  for  us  to  explain  a  little  more  at  length  why  we  should 
*  almost  prefer  '  if  not  quite  prefer  Turkish  to  Russian  rule.  We  indicated  it 
when  we  said  that  «  Russia  is  not  only  intolerant  and  oppressive,  but  she  is 
strong.'  It  is  true  that  under  Russian  rule  to  a  certain  extent  life  and  property 
are  safe.  The  same  is  true  under  the  usual  conditions  in  Turkey,  and  to  an 
equal  extent.  In  neither  country  are  life  and  property  safe  to  those  who  are  of 
another  way  of  thinking  from  what  the  Government  prefers ;  but  on  the  whole 
the  Armenians  have  quite  as  little  to  complain  of  from  the  Government,  under 
the  usual  circumstances,  as  the  Jews  or  Stundists  or  Molokanis  or  Doukhobortsi 
in  Russia.  Villages  have  been  broken  up  and  the  people  scattered  and  men  and 
women  treated  as  badly  by  the  Russian  soldiers  as  by  the  Turkish  soldiers,  with 
this  difference,  that  Russia  sends  its  sectaries  to  Siberia  or  to  Trans-Caucasus 
and  gives  them  the  knout,  while  once  in  thirty  years  Turkey  puts  down  its  sec- 
recognized,  tolerated  and  protected  by  the  Russians.  By  and  by,  the  missionary 
from  Erzroum  went  to  visit  his  flock  at  Kars.  He  was  allowed  to  pass  once  or 
twice  ;  but  after  the  new  administration  was  fully  established  the  missionary  was 
met  at  the  frontier  by  a  very  polite  official,  who  told  him  in  effect  that  Russia 
can  take  care  of  her  own  subjects  without  the  aid  of  even  so  amiable  friends  as 
the  Americans.     That  ended  missionary  visits  to  Kars. 

"  As  to  Protestant  missionaries  who  may  seek  to  enter  territory  already  Rus- 
sian in  order  to  work  for  pagans  or  Mohammedans,  the  policy  of  Russia  is  well 
defined.  In  1795,  a  little  band  of  Moravians  took  their  lives  in  their  hands  and 
established  a  mission  among  the  Tartars  of  Daghestan,  near  the  Caspian  Sea. 
The  Church  of  Scotland  in  1802  established  a  mission  at  Karass,  between  the 
Caspian  and  the  Black  Seas,  and  in  1819,  the  London  Missionary  Society  sent 
missionaries  to  Selinginsk,  in  the  region  of  Lake  Baikal,  with  the  hope  of  find- 
ing a  door  to  China  open  on  that  side.  Under  the  liberal  reign  of  the  Czar 
Alexander  I,  these  missions  to  Tartars  and  Mongols,  were  highly  favoured. 
Prince  Galitzin,  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  was  a  pious  man  who  took  a 
deep  interest  in  the  experiment.  Grants  of  land  were  given  to  the  missions  and 
they  were  aided  in  their  attempts  to  translate  the  Scriptures.  All  of  these  mis- 
sions were  in  full  and  successful  career,  with  chapels,  schools  for  both  sexes  and 
printing  presses  in  operation,  and  many  converts  from  both  pagans  and  Moham- 
medans, when  Alexander  I  died.  The  Czar  Nicholas  would  have  none  of  these 
things  and  closed  the  Scottish  mission  and  the  Moravian  mission  at  once  (1825). 
The  London  Society's  mission,  near  Lake  Baikal  was  favoured  by  distance  per- 
haps. At  all  events,  it  continued  without  molestation  until  1841.  Then  a  re- 
script from  the  Holy  Synod  was  handed  to  the  missionaries  which  simply  de- 
clared the  mission  suppressed  because  '  the  mission,  in  relation  to  the  form  of 
Christianity  already  established  in  the  empire,  does  not  coincide  with  the  views 
of  the  Church  and  the  Government '  "  (  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 
May,  1904,  Article,  "Religious  Russia  and  Protestant  Missions,"  pp.  330,  331). 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  641 

taries  with  a  massacre.  We  have  not  forgotten  Kennan's  pictures  of  Siberia,  or 
the  protest  against  Jewish  persecutions  signed  only  five  years  ago  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  others. 

"  We  '  almost  prefer,'  if  not  quite  prefer  Turkish  rule  to  Russian,  for  the  reason 
that  the  enlightening  influences  of  education  and  of  religion  are  allowed  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  in  Turkey,  and  are  producing  their  effect ;  while  they  are  forbidden 
in  Russia,  except  under  the  strictest  Government  control.  We  think  that  much 
as  we  detest  both,  we  do  not  detest  death  more  than  we  detest  slavery.  We 
have  less  fear  of  massacre  than  we  have  of  oppressive  servitude.  But  chiefly 
this  controls  us,  that,  bad  as  the  conditions  are  in  Turkey,  terrible  as  massacre  is, 
we  regard  relief  from  these  conditions  as  something  that  is  bound  to  come  in  the 
near  future ;  and  when  it  comes  it  will  be  grand  liberty.  Civilization  will  enter 
that  country  like  a  flood  ;  the  influences  for  the  best  enlightenment  of  the  world 
will  pour  into  it ;  the  surplus  wealth  of  Europe  will  be  invested  in  Turkey,  and 
it  will  become  once  more  the  garden  spot  of  the  world,  as  it  has  already  the 
world's  most  magnificent  history  behind  it.  There  is  only  one  thing  that  stands 
in  the  way  and  can  endanger  this  future,  and  that  is  Russian  occupation. 

"  There  is  not  a  civilized  district  in  Russia;  not  one  which  possesses  liberty  or 
the  free  press,  or  free  schools,  or  free  religion.  It  is  all  under  a  Government 
which  is  oppressive  and  vicious  and  strong ;  and  there  is  no  hope  for  decades  to 
come  of  any  relief.  If  we  believe  in  the  principles  of  our  own  Government  we 
disbelieve  in  those  of  Russia,  for  they  are  its  direct  antithesis.  The  principles 
which  the  United  States  represents  have  entered  into  the  Government  of  Bul- 
garia, and  they  are  permeating  the  Christian  population  of  all  Turkey.  Those 
principles  would  be  crushed  beyond  redemption  by  Russian  occupation.  And  so 
long  as  we  care  more  for  liberty  than  we  do  for  life ;  so  long  as  we  are  willing  to 
suffer  worse  things  for  a  while  with  a  view  for  better  things  to  come  ;  so  long  as 
we  honour  our  ancestors  who  preferred  the  sufferings  of  war  to  a  tax  on  tea,  we 
are  justified  in  saying  that  we  almost  or  quite  prefer  to  have  the  Armenian  prov- 
inces suffer  a  while  longer  the  horrors  of  Turkish  massacre  than  to  have  them 
lose  the  chance  of  ultimate  progress,  prosperity  and  freedom." 

2.  Northern  Persia  has  been  so  completely  at  Russia's  mercy  that 
its  political  annexation  has  been  needless.  Under  Persian  rule  the 
missions  have  gone  on  with  their  work,  with  some  limitation  but  yet 
with  far  greater  practical  liberty  than  missions  in  Turkey  have  en- 
joyed. The  missions  were  established  when  England's  influence  in 
Persia  was  so  predominant  as  to  be  almost  exclusive,  and  until  the 
establishment  of  the  American  legation  in  1882-83  tne  American 
missions  which  were  for  years  the  only  organized  missions  in  the 
country  were  under  the  care  of  the  British  minister  in  Teheran  and 
the  British  Consul  in  Tabriz.     The  decay  of  British  influence  before 


642  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

Russian  expansion,  however,  has  completely  changed  the  situation 
in  Persia.  Now  Great  Britain  concedes  northern  Persia  to  Russia, 
and  claims  only  the  south.1  "  We  recognize,"  says  Major  Young- 
husband,  "that  Russia  must  control  northern  Persia."2  "Our 
policy,"  said  Lord  Cranborne  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  January, 
1902,  "is  the  integrity  of  Persia.  That  unselfishness  is  not  due  to 
any  elaborate  moral  motive,  because  it  is  our  interest  that  Persia 
should  remain  in  its  present  territorial  condition.  But,  when  I  state 
that,  I  ought  to  add  that  there  are  limits  to  that  policy.  That  policy 
cannot  be  pursued  independently  of  the  action  of  other  Powers. 
We  are  anxious  for  the  integrity  of  Persia,  but  we  are  anxious  far 
more  for  the  balance  of  power ;  and  it  would  be  impossible  for  us, 
whatever  the  cause,  to  abandon  what  we  look  upon  as  our  rightful 
position  in  Persia.     Especially  is  that  true  in  regard  to  the  Persian 


1  Extract  from  statement  of  Lord  Lansdowne  to  the  House  of  Lords,  May  5, 
1903: 

"  I  do  not  yield  to  the  noble  Lord  in  the  interest  which  I  take  in  the  Persian 
Gulf,  or  in  the  feeling  that  this  country  stands  with  regard  to  the  navigation  of 
the  Persian  Gulf  in  a  position  different  from  that  of  any  other  Power.  The 
noble  Lord  said  with  absolute  truth  that  it  was  owing  to  British  enterprise, 
British  expenditure  of  lives  and  money  that  the  Persian  Gulf  is  at  this  moment 
open  to  the  navigation  of  the  world.  It  was  we  who  put  down  the  slave  trade, 
and  it  was  we  who  buoyed  and  beaconed  those  intricate  waters.  At  this  moment 
out  of  a  total  trade  in  the  gulf  ports  of  ,£3,600,000  for  the  year  1901,  .£2,300,000 
represent  the  commerce  of  this  country,  so  that  it  is  clear  that  up  to  the  present, 
at  all  events,  we  have  succeeded  in  preserving  a  liberal  share  of  that  commerce. 
But  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  gulf  and  in  other  parts  of  Persia  we  are  feeling 
very  keenly  the  competition  of  other  Powers.  That  I  am  afraid  is  our  fate,  not 
alone  in  Persian  waters,  nor  can  we  expect  that  because  we  have  been  in  the  de- 
velopment of  commerce  throughout  the  world  the  pioneers  of  that  form  of  civili- 
zation, that  we  should  always  be  able  to  maintain  the  position  of  superiority 
which  we  at  first  enjoyed. 

"  The  noble  Lord  asked  me  for  a  statement  of  our  policy  with  regard  to  the 
Persian  Gulf.  I  think  I  can  give  him  one  in  few  and  simple  words.  It  seems 
to  me  that  our  policy  should  be  directed  in  the  first  place  to  protect  and  promote 
British  trade  in  these  waters.  In  the  next  place  I  do  not  think  he  suggests, 
or  that  we  should  suggest,  that  those  efforts  should  be  directed  towards  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  legitimate  trade  of  other  Powers — (hear,  hear) — and  in  the  third 
place,  I  say  without  hesitation  that  we  should  regard  the  establishment  of  a  naval 
base  or  a  fortified  fort  in  the  Persian  Gulf  by  any  other  Power  as  a  very  grave 
menace  to  British  interests,  and  that  we  should  certainly  resist  it  with  all  the 
means  at  our  disposal.  (Cheers.)  I  say  that  in  no  minatory  spirit,  because 
so  far  as  I  know,  no  such  proposal  is  made  for  the  establishment  of  a  base  in  the 
Persian  Gulf,  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  noble  Lord  waxed  almost 
unnecessarily  warm  at  the  idea  of  such  foreign  intrusion  with  which,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  we  are  not  at  present  threatened." 

2  Letter  to  the  Times,  December  5,  1901. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  643 

Gulf,  as  I  had  the  honour  to  state  to  the  House  a  few  days  ago.  It 
is  true  not  only  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  but  of  the  southern  Provinces  of 
Persia,  and  those  provinces  which  border  on  our  Indian  Empire. 
Our  rights  there,  and  our  position  of  ascendency,  we  cannot  aban- 
don." '  The  Russians,  on  the  other  hand,  now  dream  of  engulfing 
the  whole  country.  As  "  A  Russian  Diplomatist  "  says,  "  The  geo- 
graphical position  of  Russia  and  of  Persia  have  bound  the  essential 
interests  of  those  two  countries  together  for  more  than  a  century,  and 
it  appears  to  us  impossible  that  Russia  should  yield  any  of  her  ac- 
quired advantages  to  any  other  Power.  We  therefore  cannot  see 
any  serious  possibility  of  England's  preventing  Russia  from  approach- 
ing towards  the  Persian  Gulf.  It  is  possible  that  this  goal  will  not 
be  reached  to-morrow,  but  it  certainly  will  be  in  the  near  future. 
In  any  event  a  partition  of  influence  in  Persia  between  Russia  and 
England  appears  to  be  outside  the  range  of  practical  politics."  a 

Thus  far  there  has  been  no  visible  exercise  of  Russian  influence 
over  northern  Persia,  made  practically  complete  by  loans  and  con- 
cessions and  roads,  as  well  as  by  geographical  proximity  and  over- 
whelming military  supremacy,  to  the  disadvantage  of  missions,  un- 
less the  prohibition  of  the  importation  of  Bibles  in  Persian,  Turkish 
and  Arabic  should  be  her  suggestion,  the  customs  management  hav- 
ing passed  into  Russian  control  though  administered  by  Belgian 
agents.  The  Russian  Church  has,  however,  damaged  the  mission 
work  carried  on  for  seventy  years  by  American  missionaries  among 
the  Nestorians.  Russian  priests  came  into  the  field  in  1898-99  at  a 
time  when  the  Nestorian  people  were  eager  for  the  political  protection 
of  some  Christian  Government,  and  the  Nestorians  in  Persia,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Protestant  section  of  them,  went  over  en  masse. 
The  Russian  priests  took  possession  of  the  churches  and  absorbed  the 
native  priesthood.  The  ceremony  of  consecration  and  absorption  is 
interesting  as  revealing  the  missionary  methods  of  the  Church  and  its 
spirit  of  pure  formalism.  A  missionary,  resident  in  Urumia,  wrote 
at  the  time  : 

"  The  first  thing  on  reaching  a  village,  is  to  reconsecrate  the  Nestorian  Church, 
which  is  taken  possession  of  without  ado  or  question  of  legal  right.  After  the 
church  is  consecrated,  applicants  are  received  individually,  and  make  confession 

1  Quoted  by  Norman,'^//  the  Russias,  pp.  443k 
9  Ibid.,  pp.  440f. 


644  Missions  and  Modern  History 

to  the  priest.  Another  day  the  '  converts '  gather  in  the  church  yard,  where 
the  formal  reception  rite  is  gone  through,  the  people  through  a  representative 
and  by  kneeling  in  assent,  renounce  the  '  errors  '  of  Nestorianism,  and  accept  the 
Russian  Church,  and  the  Communion  service  is  held. 

"  The  substance  of  the  form  used  by  the  Russians  in  receiving  Nestorians  is  as 
follows,  omitting  the  prayers,  etc. : 

"  Question.  '  Do  you  cast  aside  the  errors  and  false  teachings  of  the  Nestorian 
faith  ?  ' 

"  Reply.     '  Yes.' 

"  Q.     «  Do  you  wish  to  become  a  member  of  the  Orthodox  Catholic  faith  ?  ' 

"R.     'Yes.' 

"  Q.  '  Do  you  cast  aside  the  false  teachings  of  Nestorius  and  Theodorus  and 
all  of  the  same  opinions  ?  ' 

«  R.     « Yes.' 

"  Q.  '  Do  you  cast  aside  the  false  doctrine  that  teaches  that  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  there  are  two  natures  and  two  persons  ?  Will  you  accept  in  the 
Orthodox  way,  two  natures  and  one  person,  of  the  deity  and  humanity  ?  ' 

"R.     'Yes.' 

"  Q.  '  Do  you  cast  aside  the  false  teaching  that  teaches  that  the  Virgin  Mary 
is  the  Mother  of  Christ  ?  Will  you  say,  in  the  Orthodox  way,  that  she  in  truth 
bore  Christ  our  God,  and  is  the  Mother  of  God  ? ' 

"  R.     '  Yes.' 

"  Q.  « Do  you  wish  to  unite  with  the  Orthodox  Catholic  Church  of  the  East, 
and  will  you  promise  to  obey  it  ?  ' 

"  R.     '  Yes.' 

"  Q.  '  Do  you  receive  the  Seven  Synods  (i.  e.t  Ecumenical  Councils)  of 
Nicea,  etc.  (names  given),  and  do  you  receive  the  rules  established  by  these 
Seven  Councils? ' 

"R.     'Yes.' 

"  Q.  « Do  you  accept  pictures  of  the  Saints  of  the  Orthodox  Church ;  and 
when  you  bow  before  them  will  you  consider  that  you  are  not  honouring  the 
picture,  but  the  memory  of  the  Saint?  ' 

"  R.     « Yes.' 

"  Q.  '  Do  you  receive  the  rules  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Seven  Synods  and  the 
Nine  Councils,  all  their  ordinances,  testaments  and  laws  ?  ' 

"R.     'Yes.' 

"Q.  '  Do  you  promise  the  Holy  Synod,  the  Orthodox  Archbishop,  to  honour 
and  obey  them  in  spiritual  things  ? ' 

"  R.     «  Yes.'  " 

The  Russian  priests  have  not  been  able  to  deliver  the  political  pro- 
tection they  promised,  or  which  at  least  the  people  expected.  They 
have  been  men  of  character  inferior  to  that  of  the  reliable  native 
men  among  the  Nestorians.     They  have  acted  with  high  handed 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  645 

arbitrariness  with  the  Christians,  and  have  angered  the  Moslems, 
compelling  the  sale  of  land,  erecting  a  bell  tower  with  chimes,  a 
scandal  to  the  Mohammedans,  and  embittering  the  whole  community 
against  them.  It  has  been  a  singularly  infelicitous  illustration  of  the 
ability  of  the  Russians  to  adapt  themselves,  to  treat  the  people  with 
conciliation  and  to  assimilate  them. 

The  Russian  priests  have  been  in  the  main  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  American  missionaries.  There  have  been  conferences  to  settle 
questions  which  arose  between  them,  and  the  people  they  represented, 
and  while  the  coming  of  the  Greek  Church  has  complicated  the 
situation,  contracted  the  field,  and  done  damage  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people,  it  has  not  yet  warred 
against  the  evangelical  movement. 

The  only  considerable  Greek  Church  mission  outside  of  Russian 
territory  is  the  interesting  mission  of  Bishop  Nicolai  in  Japan.  This 
is  Bishop  Nicolai's  own  account  of  his  work  : 

"  The  Bible  teaches  that  the  Lord  governs  all  nations  and  peoples.  Again 
that  the  Lord  desires  that  all  people  be  saved  and  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth.  Why  then  has  the  Lord  left  the  Japanese  nation  until  now  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  which  is  salvation  ?  There  is  no  doubt 
but  that  the  Japanese  up  to  the  present  have  not  been  ready  to  accept  Christian- 
ity. They  have  been  content  with  their  own  religions  and  their  minds  have 
been  occupied  with  them.  Therefore,  their  hearts  have  been  closed  to  the  truth 
of  God.  The  Lord  who  endowed  man  with  freedom  left  the  Japanese  likewise 
to  follow  their  own  free  will.  But  happily  their  own  will  led  them  not  far  from 
God's  highway.  Their  three  religions,  viz.,  Buddhism,  Confucianism  and 
Shintoism  have  served  well  as  tutors  up  to  the  present.  However,  these  faiths 
failed  to  reveal  the  fundamental  teachings  of  God,  man,  and  kindred  truths.  As 
these  religions  were  the  works  of  men,  they  were  powerless  to  give  light  con- 
cerning those  exalted  doctrines  which  God  alone  is  able  to  reveal.  But  the 
simpler  moral  truths,  which  are  innate  in  the  souls  of  men,  these  religions  fostered 
in  the  Japanese,  who  in  turn  gladly  accepted  and  practiced  them.  We  know 
this  to  be  true  from  the  fact  that  the  morality  of  the  Japanese  is  not  inferior  to 
that  of  the  peoples  of  Europe  or  America.  The  Japanese  who  have  not  the  law 
of  God  « do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,'  as  the  Scripture  says. 
On  this  account  God  loves  them.  The  Scripture  also  says :  '  God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons,  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  Him  and  worketh  righteousness 
is  accepted  with  Him.'  Wherefore  the  Lord  in  His  providence  has  protected 
the  Japanese  nation  during  all  the  ages  past. 

"  Now  at  last  the  time  has  come  for  the  Japanese  to  receive  the  true  teach- 
ing of  God.     Behold ;  the  door  is  open  for  this  teaching.     The  tutors  are  no 


646  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

longer  able  to  lead  the  people.  The  nation  has  reached  a  stage  of  development 
in  which  it  is  capable  of  acting  under  the  guiding  hand  of  the  heavenly  Father 
Himself.  God  has  begun  to  converse  with  the  nation.  The  dark  night,  in 
which  the  three  man-made  lamps  gave  satisfactory  light,  has  passed  away.  Let  it 
be  morning  to  those  Japanese  who  have  awakened  from  their  sleep !  The  Sun 
of  Righteousness  has  appeared !  The  Light  of  the  World  has  begun  to  shine 
brightly  into  the  faces  of  the  Japanese.  Of  course  it  is  impossible  to  hope  that 
the  nation  as  a  whole  will  receive  the  light  at  once.  One  awakening  in  the 
morning  cannot  appropriate  at  once  the  light  of  the  rising  sun.  He  is  at  first 
dazed,  he  rubs  his  eyes,  and  only  gradually  becomes  accustomed  to  the  dazzling 
light.  So  with  the  spiritual  eye.  The  eyes  of  all  the  people  cannot  receive  and 
appreciate  the  whole  light  at  once,  which  has  been  sent  from  heaven  to  shine 
upon  all  the  race.  The  mind  and  heart  of  the  Japanese  are  accustomed  to  find 
satisfaction  in  the  agreeable  truths  of  their  ancient  religions  which  originated 
naturally  or  by  man's  design.  It  will  take  time  for  the  masses  to  receive  the  full 
truth  of  that  revelation  whose  completion  engaged  the  ministrations  of  many  a 
prophet  and  at  last  the  manifestation  of  God  Himself. 

"  It  is  a  fact  known  world-wide  that  the  implanting  of  the  gospel  in  the  hearts 
of  the  Japanese  is  in  progress.  It  is  also  evident,  as  seen  by  the  eyes  of  all 
nations,  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  Japan  is  expanding  continuously.  The 
work  also  of  the  various  mission  boards  is  enlarging.  In  proof  I  will  state  cer- 
tain figures  which  show  the  growth  of  Christianity.  The  figures  demonstrate 
that  throughout  the  land  the  people  lend  a  ready  ear  and  receive  the  gospel 
gladly.  Statistics  simply  deal  with  outside  facts  and,  therefore,  should  not  be  de- 
pended upon  wholly  or  esteemed  too  highly.  However,  progress  is  always 
gauged  somewhat  by  figures,  hence  I  will  submit  the  following  statistics.  In 
1902  A.  d.  the  mission  of  the  Orthodox  Church  in  Japan  received  by  baptism 
1,103  souls.  Of  this  number  fifty  per  cent,  were  the  children  of  parents  already 
Christian.  The  remainder  were  adults  who  heard  the  gospel  and  embraced  the 
faith.  This  is  indeed  pleasing  progress,  for  the  work  of  the  mission  is  carried  on 
by  the  Japanese  themselves  and  it  certainly  gives  good  assurance  for  the  future. 
There  are  pessimists  who  assert  that  the  Japanese  have  no  real  ability  to  receive 
Christianity  or  to  abide  as  faithful  believers.  Why  is  this  so  ?  Is  not  the  intel- 
lect of  the  Japanese  capable  of  grasping  the  truths  of  God's  revelation  in  the 
same  measure  as  the  intellect  of  any  other  nation  ?  Or  are  not  their  sensibilities 
responsive  to  the  beauty  of  holiness  ?  Or  are  their  wills  not  inclined  to  the 
goodness  of  God  ?  To  reply  in  the  negative  is  to  affirm  that  the  Japanese  nation 
has  no  kindred  relation  with  the  rest  of  the  human  race,  which  sprang  from  one 
parent,  Adam.  To  affirm  such  would  be  nonsense.  The  Japanese  as  well  as  all 
other  nations  are  the  children  of  Adam  and  with  all  the  nations  they  are 
brethren  of  one  common  Elder  Brother,  God's  only  begotten  Son,  who  took  upon 
Himself  the  form  of  man  that  He  might  save  all  men.  Wherefore  the  Japanese 
are  the  children  of  God  just  as  surely  as  are  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  or 
America.     Our  Father  in  heaven  who  has  long  ago  been  revealed  to  the  nations 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  647 

of  Europe  and  America  is  now  beginning  to  manifest  His  glory  to  the  Japanese. 
We  can  no  more  doubt  that  God  will  fully  reveal  Himself  to  them  then  we  can 
doubt  His  omnipotence  or  His  benevolence. 

"According  to  the  tables  of  January  I,  1903,  the  statistics  of  the  Japanese 
Orthodox  Church  are  as  follows : 

"  Churches, 260 

Church  members, 27>S°4 

Ordained  Japanese  Priests, 30 

"  "  Deacons, 8 

Evangelists, 144 

Schools  in  Tokyo 

One  training  school  for  Evangelists,  students, 16 

One  Theological  Seminary,  students, 84 

One  School  for  Girls, 80 

School-teachers, 28 

School  in  Kyoto 

One  girls'  school,  students, 20 

Teachers, 3."  • 

This  success  is  remarkable  where  the  mission  has  but  one  mission- 
ary and  is  representative  of  the  country  which  Japan  most  hates  and 
distrusts.  A  mission  of  the  Russian  Church  was  established  in 
Korea  in  1899  by  a  priest,  who  was  followed  the  next  year  by  two 
additional  Russian  missionaries.  The  priests  opened  a  school  in 
1900. 

For  the  most  part,  the  Orthodox  Church  is  content  to  stay  within 
its  own  national  and  political  boundaries.  Even  there  it  attempts  no 
conversion  of  Mohammedans  and  heathen,  and  will  probably  not  for 
years  or  generations  seek  the  absorption  of  Turkomans  or  other 
Asiatics  within  its  fold.  It  is  not  so  much  a  force  for  the  extension 
of  the  gospel  as  an  agency  for  the  support  of  the  State. 

3.  What  would  the  control  of  Manchuria  by  Russia  involve  to 
the  flourishing  work  established  there  by  the  Irish  and  Scotch  Presbyte- 
rians ?  Before  the  Boxer  Uprising  this  was  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  signally  successful  missions  in  the  world.  No  one's  judgment 
as  to  the  effect  of  Russia's  absorption  of  Manchuria  on  Christian  mis- 
sions is  more  valuable  than  that  of  Dr.  John  Ross,  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  work  from  the  beginning.  In  1898  he  wrote,  after  describing 
Russia's  increase  of  influence  in  Manchuria,  as  but  the  development 
of  a  long  cherished  and  consistently  followed  plan  : 

1  The  Christian  Movement  in  its  Relation  to  the  New  Life  in  Japan,  pp.  137- 
140. 


648  Missions  and  Modern  History 

"  There  is  no  doubt  that  Russia's  progress  in  Asia  has  been  characterized 
throughout  by  cold,  unbending  religious  intolerance.  It  is,  however,  an  intoler- 
ance of  somewhat  different  character  from  what  is  generally  understood.  It  is 
by  no  means  always  the  result  of  intense  devotion  on  the  part  of  the  Russian 
official  to  his  own  Church,  for  it  not  infrequently  acts  as  strenuously  against  the 
Greek  Church  as  against  any  other.  An  illustration  of  this  is  found  in  Schuyler's 
Turkestan.  The  inhabitants  of  Western  Turkestan  were  virtually  without  a 
known  religion  when  they  fell  under  the  sway  of  Russia.  The  officers  in  com- 
mand, believing  that  the  people  should  be  Mohammedans,  introduced  teachers  of 
that  religion  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  proper  discharge  of  their  religious 
duties.  It  afterwards  transpired  that  had  the  officers  introduced  the  Greek  or 
other  faith  the  people  would  have  accepted  it  with  equal  readiness.  The  domi- 
nant idea  in  the  officials'  mind  was  the  preservation  of  order,  and  Christian  mis- 
sionary zeal  being  supposed  to  engender  strife  was  forbidden.  So,  also,  not 
many  years  ago  it  was  reported  that  provision  was  officially  made  for  the  better 
chanting  of  Buddhism  in  Eastern  Siberia,  young  men  having  been  sent  to  Peking 
to  learn.  Similarly,  whenever  Protestant  missionaries  have  entered  Russian 
territory  they  have  been  regarded  with  the  deepest  suspicion  because  their  teach- 
ings were  thought  to  be  unsettling  and  disturbing  in  their  character.  As  it  is, 
however,  the  well-established  principle  of  Russia  to  recognize  whatever  exists,  it 
seems  probable  that  the  uneasiness  sometimes  expressed  as  to  the  future  possible 
antagonism  of  Russia  to  Christian  work  in  Manchuria  is  exaggerated.  Doubt- 
less this  uneasiness  has  a  basis  in  the  past  history  of  Russian  movements,  for  ex- 
ample, against  the  London  Missionary  Society's  missions  in  Mongolia  ;  but  those 
were  undertaken  after  Russia's  occupation.  If  Russia  finds  evangelical  work 
already  established  and  is  convinced  that  its  purpose  is  distinctly  non-political,  it 
may  be  that  her  opposition  will  not  be  so  bitter.  In  any  case  it  behooves  the 
British,  remembering  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  East  India  Company  to  all  mis- 
sionary  activity,  to  be  lenient  in  their  judgment  of  Russian  influence  ;  and  a  hope 
for  the  best  is  undoubtedly  legitimate  and  may  be  well  founded." 

When  Russia  had  control  of  Manchuria  she  did  not  actively  inter- 
fere with  the  Protestant  missions.  Some  of  the  missionaries  thought 
that  she  would  not  do  so,  believing  that  east  of  the  Caucasus  Russia 
is  not  a  persecuting  nation  and  that  in  Siberia  and  Manchuria  she 
would  not  interfere  with  mission  work.  Other  missionaries  held  a 
different  view  pointing  to  the  recent  actions  of  Russia  regarding  the 
Armenians  in  the  Caucasus,  and  urging  that  as  soon  as  Russia  should 
be  in  full  possession  of  Manchuria,  aggressive  mission  work  would  be 
stopped  and  the  missions  be  allowed  to  carry  on  work  only  for  their 
own  existing  constituencies.     Is  this  latter  likely  to  be  the  course  which 

1  The  Independent,  October  20, 1898,  Art.,  "  Russia  and  Manchuria,"  p.  1114. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  649 

will  be  pursued  elsewhere,  if  indeed  so  generous  a  course  is  elsewhere 
allowed  ?  The  darker  view  of  the  probabilities  is  as  follows  :  (1)  No 
attempt  to  influence  members  of  the  Orthodox  Church  will  be  any- 
where endured.  The  dissenting  Rascol  priests  and  leaders,  says  Mr. 
Heard  in  the  closing  sentences  of  his  book  on  the  Russian  Church, 
"and  the  rule  applies  to  all  religious  denominations  in  Russia, 
whether  foreign  or  domestic,  refrain  from  making  proselytes  among 
members  of  the  Orthodox  communion.  This  is  not  only  a  sin  against 
the  Church,  but  is  a  crime  against  the  law."  '  (2)  No  general  evan- 
gelical mission  work  will  be  tolerated,  nor  any  other  influence  deemed 
unfavourable  to  the  Russian  autocracy,  which  requires  the  Russian 
Church  as  one  of  its  supports.  As  the  Novoye  Vremya,  commenting 
on  the  Anglo-German  agreement  in  1900  with  reference  to  the  Yang- 
tse  Valley,  said  :  "  It  is  a  pity  that  these  competitors,  Germany  and 
England,  will  have  commercial  relations  with  us.  Their  presence  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  Manchuria  promises  serious  dangers."  The 
paper  asserted  that  Russians  alone  possess  the  capacity  for  living 
peaceably  with  Asiatics,  and  declared  that  therefore  peace  can  only 
exist  in  Manchuria  when  Russians  alone  deal  with  the  Chinese.  For 
this  reason,  Russia  cannot  admit  north  of  the  Pei-ho  any  influence 
but  her  own.  Russia,  it  added,  does  not  wish  new  acquisitions  or  to 
attempt  anything  against  the  territorial  integrity  of  China.  Continu- 
ing, the  paper  said  :  "By  all  means  open  the  doors  to  the  whole  of 
South  China.  Exploit  it  and  preach  the  Gospel  with  the  aid  of  the 
sword.  That  is  your  affair,  but  we  cannot  open  the  doors  of  North 
China."  2  (3)  Not  improbably  existing  missions  working  for  distinct 
classes  such  as  the  Gregorians  or  Nestorians  will  be  tolerated  so  long 
as  no  disturbance  or  opposition  arises,  although  probably  they  will 
be  compelled  to  make  the  work  pastoral  and  educational  for  existing 
Christian  communities,  and  be  forbidden  all  effort  to  extend  their 
bounds.  As  for  Mohammedans  and  heathen,  it  is  not  likely  that 
Russia  will  allow  any  effort  at  their  evangelization. 

Some  have  been  disposed  to  point  to  the  Czar's  proclamation  of 
religious  toleration  of  1903,  as  evidence  of  the  dawn  of  a  better  day. 
But  there  have  been  many  instances  in  Russian  history  of  far  more 
liberal  announcements  from  the  Government,  and  that  that  proclama- 

1  The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,  p.  297. 

2  Reported  in  The  Neiv  York  Sun,  October  23,  1900. 


650  Missions  and  Modern  History 

tion  did  not  in  the  least  relax  the  old  restrictions  as  to  the  integrity 
of  the  Orthodox  Church  or  the  crime  of  apostasy  from  it  was  revealed 
in  the  new  code  published  shortly  afterwards.  Indeed  "the  'new 
code  '  differs  from  the  old  so  little  that  one  can  hardly  say  whether  it 
relaxes  or  increases  the  grip  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church  upon  the 
subjects  of  the  Czar.  '  Three  years  in  a  fortress  '  is  the  light  penalty 
imposed  upon  any  man  '  who  uses  his  public  position  to  influence  or 
induce  any  member  of  the  Orthodox  Church  to  join  the  ranks  of 
another  religious  communion.'  Any  parent  having  his  child  bap- 
tized by  other  than  the  Greek  rite  may  be  imprisoned  for  one  year. 
The  same  penalty  is  incurred  by  any  preacher  or  colporteur  who  con- 
verts any  member  of  the  Russian  Church  to  Protestantism  ;  and  any 
convert  who  announces  publicly  his  renunciation  of  the  Orthodox 
Church  and  his  admission  to  any  other  communion  must  pay  300 
roubles  for  his  temerity,  beside  submitting  to  the  penalty  laid  upon 
him  as  a  schismatic.  This  is  the  Czar's  definition  of  '  religious 
liberty.'  Since  the  promulgation  of  his  famous  edict  of  toleration, 
the  Czar  has  sent  scores  of  Lutheran  pastors  to  Siberia  for  dealing 
spiritually  with  persons  over  whom  the  parish  priests  claimed 
authority."  '  Possibly  a  Gregorian  will  be  allowed  to  become  a 
Nestorian  or  a  Shiah  a  Sunnee,  but  the  proclamation  means  little 
more.  Whether  it  means  that  foreign  missionaries  may  work  freely 
among  the  people  of  Russia  to  produce  what  changes  they  can  out- 
side of  the  Orthodox  Church,  remains  to  be  seen.  It  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  at  present  anything  of  the  sort  will  be  allowed. 

The  recent  proceedings  of  Russia  in  her  dealing  with  the  Arme- 
nians in  the  Caucasus  are  not  reassuring  as  to  the  tolerant  spirit  of 
Russia  towards  other  Christian  bodies  than  the  Greek  Church,  and 
they  contrast  strangely  with  the  utterances  of  the  Czar  in  his  procla- 
mation on  religious  toleration.  Some  years  ago  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment took  over  the  administration  of  all  properties  and  endow- 
ments belonging  to  the  Armenian  schools,  and  last  year  by  a  further 
ukase  the  Government  takes  charge  of  all  church  property,  villages, 
monasteries  and  endowments,  whether  at  Etchmiadzin  or  elsewhere 
in  Russia,  to  be  "  administered  for  the  benefit  "  of  the  Armenian 
Church.  "We  were  very  much  surprised,"  says  a  recent  traveller 
through  the  Caucasus,  "  to  learn  of  the  very  severe  methods  Russia 

•  The  Interior,  July  23,  1903. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  6ji 

is  using  to  compel  the  Armenians  to  hand  over  their  Church  property 
to  the  care  of  the  Government.  Wherever  the  Armenians  have  re- 
sisted they  have  been  shot  down.  In  one  place  seventy  were  killed,  in 
another  ten  right  in  a  church.  In  one  village  I  was  told  six  had  been 
killed  and  twenty  wounded.  The  total  number  as  I  hear  reported,  must 
have  run  up  to  nearly  two  hundred."  "  The  Friends  of  Armenia," 
an  Association  of  which  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  is  President,  recently 
set  forth  the  facts  as  they  were  believed  by  that  Association  to  be,  in 
a  circular  entitled  "  Religious  Persecution  in  Russia"  : 

"  It  is  the  well  known  policy  of  the  Government  to  put  pressure  upon  all  its 
non-orthodox  subjects,  to  make  them  conform  to  the  Russian  State  Church. 
Whether  Jews,  Doukhobors,  German  Lutherans,  or  Polish  Catholics,  those  who 
will  not  conform  must  suffer.  Just  now  the  screws  are  being  put  upon  the 
Armenians.  In  the  Caucasus,  where  the  population  is  largely  Armenian,  the 
Government  is,  sending  in  colonies  of  Orthodox  Russians  and  settling  them  there 
to  crowd  out  the  original  peasantry.  Those  who  will  turn  orthodox,  however, 
are  not  deprived  of  their  land,  but  are  given  additional  grants  of  Government 
land  and  other  favours. 

"  Last  year  about  twenty-five  Armenian  peasants  in  the  village  of  Karakilissa 
made  up  their  minds  to  join  the  State  Church,  and  sent  a  petition  to  the  Russian 
synod  asking  to  be  baptized.  A  few  days  later  they  repented  of  this  act  of 
hypocrisy,  and  wrote  to  the  synod  that  they  had  decided  to  remain  in  their  own 
communion.  They  supposed  this  would  end  the  matter ;  but  some  time  later 
they  received  notice  from  the  Governor  of  Alexandropol  to  be  ready  for  baptism 
on  a  certain  day.  The  peasants  told  the  Governor  that  they  had  changed  their 
minds  and  had  already  notified  the  synod  to  that  effect.  The  Governor  an- 
swered, '  We  have  orders  from  St.  Petersburg  to  baptize  you.  Those  who  go 
back  on  their  word  will  be  exiled  to  Siberia.' 

"  The  next  Sunday  the  Governor  came  to  the  village  with  a  regiment  of  Cos- 
sacks, accompanied  by  the  Russian  archpriest  Vassilov  with  Bible  and  crozier, 
and  many  officers  and  Russian  ladies  carrying  bouquets,  to  attend  the  ceremony ; 
but  the  peasants  refused  to  be  baptized.  The  Governor  first  tried  to  persuade 
them ;  then,  failing  in  this,  he  ordered  the  Cossacks  to  use  their  whips.  The 
unwilling  converts  were  flogged  to  the  place  of  baptism  like  unruly  cattle,  and 
the  Cossacks  mounted  guard  over  them  with  their  whips  to  keep  them  from  run- 
ning away,  while  the  archpriest  Vassilov  read  from  the  Bible  and  sprinkled  them 
with  holy  water.  The  wives  of  the  unfortunate  men,  with  their  children,  left  the 
village,  declaring  that  they  could  not  live  with  husbands  who  let  themselves  be 
converted  by  force.     This  is  merely  one  little  incident  in  Vassilov's  career. 

"  As  items  in  the  forcible  Russianization  of  the  Caucasus,  the  Government  has 
suppressed  all  the  Armenian  benevolent  and  philanthropic  societies,  has  sub- 
jected  their   newspapers  to  rigid  censorship,  and  closed  many  of  their  public 


652  Missions  and  Modern  History 

libraries,  including  that  of  the  Armenian  philanthropic  society  at  Baku,  the  larg- 
est library  in  the  Caucasus,  which  was  used  by  all  nationalities  and  had  been  of 
great  benefit  to  the  city.  The  Government  during  the  last  few  years  has  also 
systematically  discouraged  their  commercial  and  manufacturing  enterprises,  lay- 
ing special  restrictions  upon  them,  and  offering  great  advantages  to  their  com- 
petitors. Armenians  are  now  almost  wholly  excluded  from  Government  offices, 
in  districts  where  the  bulk  of  the  population  is  Armenian. 

"  During  the  past  few  weeks  the  confiscation  of  the  Church  property  has  called 
out  great  popular  demonstrations  in  Alexandropol,  Tiflis,  Erivan,  Baku,  Shusha 
and  Elizavetpol,  accompanied  in  several  cases  with  bloodshed.  In  Alexandropol 
all  places  of  business  were  closed  and  the  city  was  hung  with  black.  In  Erivan 
several  thousand  people,  taking  with  them  the  Archbishop,  and  overcoming  the 
resistance  of  the  military  and  police,  marched  in  procession  to  Etchmiadzin, 
where  the  head  of  the  Armenian  Church  has  his  see  in  an  ancient  monastery  at 
the  foot  of  Mount  Ararat,  and  urged  him  not  to  give  up  the  property  of  the 
Church.  He  and  his  clergy  held  a  council  and  decided  not  to  surrender  it  vol- 
untarily. 

"  Chrimian,  the  present  head  of  the  Armenian  Church,  is  an  aged  prelate,  re- 
spected throughout  Europe  for  his  virtues,  and  greatly  beloved  by  his  own  Church. 
He  has  begged  the  Czar  to  grant  him  a  personal  interview  to  remonstrate,  but 
there  is  no  prospect  that  he  will  be  successful.  .  .  .  The  Armenian  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople  and  his  clergy  have  entered  a  protest  on  the  same 
ground — that  the  Church  property  belongs  to  the  members  of  the  Armenian 
Church  everywhere. 

"  In  1836  the  Russian  Government  granted  the  Armenian  Church  a  constitu- 
tion, the  eighth  and  ninth  chapters  of  which  guarantee  the  Church  the  right  to 
administer  its  own  revenues  and  conduct  its  own  schools;  but  these  promises 
have  proved  of  as  little  value  as  the  guarantees  of  constitutional  liberty  for  Fin- 
land."1 

The  Novoye  Vremya,  the  organ  of  the  assassinated  Plehve, 
Pobedonostseff  and  the  hard  Russian  conservatives  assures  the 
Armenians  that  "resistance  is  futile.  The  Armenians  may  organize 
dozens  of  demonstrations  but  the  decree  will  be  enforced." 

It  will  be  seen,  accordingly,  that  the  relations  of  Russian  expan- 
sion to  Christian  missions  from  the  Protestant  Churches  are  unfa- 
vourable, or  at  the  best,  problematical.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  the  spread  of  Russian  influence  is  not  for  good.  Un- 
questionably Russia  has  brought  great  blessings  to  the  Caucasus,  to 
Central  Asia,  to  Siberia,  to  Mongolia.  They  are  not  the  greatest 
blessings,   but  we  must  believe  that  changes  will  come  both  in  the 

'Reported  in  The  New  York  Sun,  October  9,  1903. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  653 

Russian  State  and  in  the  Orthodox  Church,  which  will  bring  these 
two  great  institutions  into  line  with  the  divine  purpose  of  progress 
and  liberty  and  life,  which  has  unfolded  through  the  centuries,  and 
which  assuredly  is  not  now  to  be  checked  and  suppressed  in  the  im- 
mense and  increasing  territories  ruled  by  the  Russian  Czar. 

The  Kishinev  massacre  of  Jews,  to  cite  a  small  but  sad  affair,  or  the 
Russianization  of  Finland,  to  cite  a  great  and  yet  sadder  one,  the 
ignorance  and  superstition  and  immorality  of  the  people,  and  the 
venality  and  atheism  of  the  ruling  class,  the  unyielding  bureaucracy 
of  the  Government,  and  the  immorality  and  stagnancy  of  the 
Church  are  urged  by  many  as  evidence  of  the  hopelessness  of  the 
situation.  The  spread  of  Russia,  they  say,  is  the  permanent  ob- 
struction of  civilization.  The  Czar,  they  almost  feel,  as  some  of  the 
Russian  sects  unhesitatingly  declare,  is  Antichrist.1 

As  to  Finland,  the  Emperor  had  solemnly  promised  to  confirm 
and  support  the  religion,  the  fundamental  laws,  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  each  class  and  of  all  the  people,  and  to  respect  and  maintain 
their  Constitution.  In  1899,  however,  by  simple  manifesto  the  Czar 
deliberately  wiped  out  his  solemn  pledge  and  began  the  destruction 
of  what  was  distinctive  in  Finland,  and  its  "assimilation  "  into  Rus- 
sia. Russia  defended  its  course  by  an  appeal  to  destiny  and  the  great 
interests  of  the  race.  Russia  must  be  one.  Whatever  stands  in  the 
way  of  unity  must  be  wiped  out, — treaty  obligations,  vows,  imperial 
promises.  When  the  ultimate  result  has  been  reached  it  will  be  time 
enough  to  stop  and  argue  about  the  morality  of  the  means  used  by 
the  way.2  The  extinction  of  Finnish  nationality  has  been  iniquity, 
but  it  has  been  "  destiny,"  present  suffering  to  the  end  of  future 
good  and  the  mission  of  the  race  ! 

The  Russian  people  are  grossly  ignorant.  In  1899  out  of  a  total 
population  of  129,004,514,  only  4,193,594  children  were  in  ele- 
mentary   schools,    and   about    315,000   in   higher   institutions.     In 

1  No  good  is  accomplished  by  utterances  like  Kipling's  poem  "  The  Truce 
of  the  Bear."  The  theory  of  a  radical  conflict  between  Russia  and  West- 
ern civilization  is  set  forth  in  Foulke,  Slav  or  Saxon.  "  By  every  lover  of 
freedom  the  Russian  autocracy  must  be  regarded  as  the  common  enemy  of  man- 
kind," says  Mr.  Foulke  (p.  139).  Skrine  in  The  Expansion  of  Russia  represents 
the  modern  reaction  of  English  opinion  towards  a  sympathetic  view. 

«  The  Contemporary  Revieza,  May,  1899,  Art.,  "  Finland  and  the  Czar  "  ;  July, 
1900,  Art.,  "  Finland  and  Russia"  ;  Skrine,  The  Expansion  of  Russia,  pp.  20f, 
215-218,  291,  322,  328. 


654  Missions  and  Modern  History 

America,  out  of  a  population  of  76,085,794  in  1900  there  were  14,- 
822,126  children  in  elementary  schools,  and  602,469  in  higher  insti- 
tutions. And  Pobedonostseff  condemns  popular  education.1  And 
Government  and  Church  are  both  absolutist  and  autocratic.  But 
they  cannot  continue  so.  The  schisms  which  have  been  described 
run  through  the  nation,  and  the  Church  will  be  unable  to  retain  its 
mediaeval  supremacy  when  intelligence  and  independence  of  opinion 
spread  among  the  people.  The  mere  expansion  of  industry,  the 
introduction  of  manufactures,  the  development  of  the  resources  of 
the  country,  will  bring  in  the  spirit  of  personal  freedom,  of  inde- 
pendent individual  action.  The  eight  years  from  1892  to  1900  re- 
veal how  fast  these  new  influences  are  increasing  their  power. 

Output  in  tons,  Output  in  tons, 

1892  1900 

Coal,                                     6,800,000  15,800,000 

Cast  iron,                             1,050,000  2,850,000 

Wrought  iron  and  steel,        984,000  2,000,000 

Cotton  goods,                          140,000  232,000 


8,974,000  20,882,000 2 

Men  cannot  be  kept  from  thinking,  and  however  strong  an  argument 
for  autocracy  can  be  made  in  theory,  it  will  not  be  possible  to  hold  men 
permanently  in  such  subjection.  Both  Church  and  State  are  bound 
to  be  liberalized  once  the  outlines  of  the  Russian  framework  are 
clearly  defined  and  the  work  of  inner  development  succeeds  the  era 
of  territorial  expansion.  The  latter  will  allow  fictions  which  the 
former  will  shatter.  "  Among  the  impressions  left  by  study  of  con- 
temporary Russia,"  says  Mr.  Norman,  "perhaps  the  most  interesting 
is  that  of  an  approaching  social  change.  Hitherto,  speaking  gen- 
erally, there  was  no  artisan  class — no  great  social  stratum  below  the 
nobility  except  the  illiterate,  stupid,  kindly,  superstitious  peasantry. 
The  growth  of  industry  is  producing  such  a  class — a  proletariat.  As- 
sociation in  large  numbers,  the  discussion  of  affairs,  the  influence  of  the 
fluent  speaker,  the  circulation  of  the  newspaper,  the  use  of  machinery, 
residence  in  towns — all  these  combine  to  confer  a  certain  education. 
With  this  rough  education  come  new  aspirations  and  the  conscious- 
ness  of   ability   to   realize   them.     When   a  dozen  men  insist  upon 

1  Reflections  of  a  Russian  Statest/ian,  pp.  75-84. 

2  Norman,  All  the  Russias,  p.  370. 


The  Coming  of  the  Slav  655 

something  hitherto  denied  them,  a  policeman  may  move  them  on  ;  a 
hundred  men  may  be  dispersed  by  a  troop  of  gendarmes  j  five  hun- 
dred men  may  be  surrounded  by  a  regiment  of  Cossacks.  But  when 
two  or  three  thousand  men  demand  a  change,  for  instance,  in  hours 
of  labour,  and  not  in  one  town  only  but  in  half  a  dozen  towns 
simultaneously,  their  demand  must  be  considered  on  its  merits. 
This  means  a  new  class  and  a  new  era  in  Russia — a  vital  modifica- 
tion of  a  society  hitherto  resting  upon  the  two  pillars  of  autocracy 
and  theocracy."  1 

And  apart  from  the  matter  of  industry,  Russia  cannot  remain 
aloof  from  the  influences  of  the  great  thoughts  which  are  here  to 
mould  the  whole  world.  Undoubtedly  Russia  is  to  contribute  her 
share  to  the  determination  of  the  form  in  which  these  great  thoughts 
are  to  find  permanent  lodgment  in  human  society.  Western  individ- 
ualism may  well  be  checked  by  Russian  socialism,  our  sense  of  lib- 
erty by  her  sense  of  authority,  our  mobility  by  her  stability.  But 
the  future  of  the  world  belongs  to  no  one  race, — neither  Anglo- 
Saxon,  Slav,  nor  Mongol.  And  that  race  does  unwisely,  whether  it 
be  ours  or  the  Russian  or  the  Chinese,  which  claims  a  supreme  and 
isolated  authority,  and  denies  so  far  that  human  brotherhood,  the 
recognition  and  service  of  which  is  the  only  valid  title  to  greatness, 
whether  of  nations  or  of  men. 

1  All  the  Russias,  pp.  4$2f;  The   Independent,  Art,  "The  Russian  Situation 
from  the  Inside,"  June  20,  1901,  pp.  14128". 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement 


XIII 
MISSIONS  AND  THE  WORLD-MOVEMENT 

OF  the  twelve  great  movements  which  have  been  considered, 
all  but  two  have  been  related  to  Asia.  We  are  often  told 
that  Asia  is  the  immovable  continent,  that  she  is  what  she 
has  been  and  that  she  will  remain  what  she  is,  that  "some  strange 
fiat  of  arrest,  probably  due  to  mental  exhaustion  has  condemned  the 
brown  men  and  the  yellow  men  to  eternal  reproduction  of  old  ideas,"  ' 
that  there  notion  and  institution  have  hardened  into  permanency  and 
that  the  continent  must  be  regarded  as  alien  to  great  moral  or  intel- 
lectual movements  and  separate  from  the  stirrings  of  life  that  work 
ceaseless  change  in  the  West.  How  is  it  possible  to  reconcile  such 
a  view  with  the  facts  which  have  passed  before  us  ?  These  Asiatic 
nations  are  alive.  The  stock  is  not  exhausted.  "  The  theory  that 
China's  decadence  is  due  to  the  fact  that  she  has  long  since  reached 
maturity  and  has  outlived  the  natural  term  of  national  existence  does 
not  hold  good.  The  mass  of  the  people  have  not  degenerated  ;  they 
are  as  fresh  and  vigorous  as  ever  they  were."  2  And  the  Japanese  pro- 
test that  they  are  among  the  most  youthful  and  vital  of  all  races.3 
Neither  is  the  stock  exhausted  nor  do  the  peoples  lack  enthusiasm  or 
the  capacity  for  common  movement.  The  Tai-ping  Rebellion,  the 
Tong  Hak  Insurrection,  the  Sepoy  Mutiny  are  evidences  of  this,  and 
even  the  Mohammedan  revival  among  the  Turks  and  the  nationalist 
aspirations  of  the  Armenians.  While  the  Babi  movement,  the  Re- 
form movement  in  Hinduism,  the  struggle  towards  enlightened  free 
institutions  in  Latin  America,  the  new  life  in  Japan,  the  racial  aspira- 
tions of  the  Slav,  and  American  "imperialism  "  are  not  mere  spo- 

1  Townsend,  Asia  and  Europe,  p.  9. 

8  Michie,  Overland  Siberian  Route,  quoted  by  Colquhoun,  China  in  Transfor- 
mation,  pp.  357 f. 

3  Art.,  "  The  Nature  of  Japanese  Civilization,"  The  Far  East,  Vol.  I,  No.  9, 
October  20,  1896,  pp.  7-13. 

659 


660  Missions  and  Modern  History 

radic  uprisings,  but  great  enduring  influences.  In  whatever  direction 
we  look,  we  see  that  the  nations  live  and  that  life  displays  itself  in 
movement,  in  readjustment,  in  upheaval.  The  simple  fact  is  that 
even  barring  any  aggressive  activity  on  the  part  of  the  civilized  na- 
tions, the  rest  of  the  world  feels  their  influence,  is  moved  by  the 
power  of  it  and  will  never  be  able  again  to  settle  down  contentedly  in 
the  rags  of  its  old  life, — the  shabby  grave  clothes,  if  any  one  desires 
to  call  them  so,  of  its  old  death. 

A  study  of  these  great  movements  and  their  consequences  answers 
the  question,  whether  the  Asiatic  peoples  can  be  permanently  influ- 
enced by  the  West.  Mr.  Meredith  Townsend  thinks  they  cannot.  If 
the  British  departed  from  India,  he  thinks,  or  "were  driven  out,  they 
would  leave  behind  them  as  the  Romans  did  in  Britain,  splendid 
roads,  many  useful  buildings,  and  increased  weakness  in  the  subject 
people  and  a  memory,  which  in  a  century  of  new  events  would  be 
extinct."  '  Mr.  Townsend  is  even  more  despondent  than  this.  If 
the  British  leave  India,  he  holds,  "the  railways,  the  only  things  we 
have  built,  will  be  torn  up,  the  universities  will  be  scouted  by  mili- 
tary rulers,  the  population  will  begin  to  decline,  and  in  short,  for  one 
word  expresses  it  all,  India  once  more  will  be  Asiatic.  Within  five 
years  of  our  departure,  we  shall  recognize  fully  that  the  greatest  ex- 
periment ever  made  by  Europe  in  Asia  was  but  an  experiment  after 
all ;  that  the  ineffaceable  distinctions  of  race  were  all  against  it  from 
the  first;  and  that  the  idea  of  the  European  tranquilly  guiding,  con- 
trolling and  perfecting  the  Asiatic  until  the  worse  qualities  of  his 
organization  had  gone  out  of  him,  though  the  noblest  dream  ever 
dreamed  by  man,  was  but  a  dream  after  all."2  Mr.  Townsend 
will  not  even  allow  Japan  to  be  cited  as  disproving  his  view  that  the 
West  cannot  exert  any  abiding  influence  on  the  East,  contending 
that  the  change  in  those  islands  was  entirely  self-generated,  that  the 
people  have  not  in  the  least  ceased  to  be  Asiatic  and  that  the  change 
no  more  represents  European  influence  than  the  purchase  of  Chinese 
tea  by  England  proves  Chinese  influence  upon  Great  Britain." 

In  reply  to  Mr.  Townsend's  view,  several  things  may  be  said, 
(i)  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  commonplace  truth  that  "East  is 

1  Asia  and  Europe,  p.  27. 
*  Ibid.,  pp.  n8f. 
3  Ibid.,  pp.  27  f. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  661 

East  and  West  is  West"  and  that  between  the  two,  a  great  gulf  is 
fixed.  It  may  be  contended  that  there  are  as  great  differences  be- 
tween Orientals  as  between  some  Orientals  and  some  Occidentals, 
that  the  unity  of  the  race  is  more  pronounced  and  powerful  than  the 
division  between  Asiatic  and  Westerner  and  that  men  will  lay  less 
stress  on  the  mysterious  unapproachability  of  the  Oriental  who  medi- 
tate on  the  mystery  of  all  personality  and  the  uncertain  reliability  of 
their  understanding  of  their  own  neighbours. 

(2)  There  is  no  spontaneous  self-generation  in  politics  any  more 
than  in  nature.  The  new  life  in  Japan  was  a  new  life  from  without 
and  the  fact  that  Japan  accepted  it  does  not  prove  Mr.  Townsend's 
thesis  that  the  West  cannot  produce  permanent  effects  on  Eastern 
character.  The  changes  that  we  most  desire  in  Asia  are  changes 
which  may  be  called  self-generated  in  Mr.  Townsend's  sense,  the 
willing,  spontaneous  adoption  and  adaptation  by  Asiatic  people  of 
the  civilization  of  the  West. 

(3)  The  facts  of  a  century's  history  condemn  his  view.  The 
history  of  Asia  will  be  different  for  all  ages  because  of  the  move- 
ments we  have  discussed  and  each  of  these  bore  a  distinct  relation- 
ship to  Western  influence.  India,  moreover,  would  not  revert  to 
barbarism,  or  to  what  Mr.  Townsend  describes  as  the  Asiatic  life,  if 
British  coercion  were  withdrawn.  No  such  coercion  operates 
upon  Siam  and  she  has  worked  her  way  a  notable  distance 
towards  the  incorporation  of  the  forms,  at  least,  of  Western 
principles  in  her  institutions.  In  the  contention  that  Europe  can- 
not permanently  hold  Asia,  or  such  parts  of  it  as  she  may  appro- 
priate, as  a  political  possession,  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should 
take  any  interest.  The  important  question  is,  "  Can  these  people  be 
influenced  to  adopt  the  better  civilization  for  themselves  ?  "  That  is 
preferable  to  their  absorption  by  Western  Powers,  some  of  which  are 
but  poor  representatives  of  the  higher  civilization.  And  surely  no 
one  who  has  traced  these  great  movings  among  the  Asiatic  and  the 
American  peoples  can  doubt  that  they  are  alike  capable  of  change 
and  susceptible  to  the  touch  of  life. 

(4)  "The  whole  history  of  civilization  protests,"  says  M.  Leroy 
Beaulieu,  "against  its  ever  having  been  at  any  time  monopolized  by 
the  Aryan  branch  of  the  white  race.  ...  It  seems  impossible 
with  the  present  facts  to  sustain  a  priori  that  one  race  cannot  assimi- 


662  Missions  and  Modern  History 

late  the  civilization  of  another."  !  Theories  of  racial  character, 
which  have  been  prevalent  may  seem  to  support  Mr.  Townsend's 
view  but  as  a  thoughtful  writer  in  Japan  has  remarked,  "  It  has  been 
our  conviction  for  many  years  that  when  the  history  of  the  influence 
of  foreign  intercourse  can  be  candidly  and  seriously  studied,  it  will 
compel  a  reconstruction  of  our  theories  of  ethnic  psychology. 
The  power  of  a  new  thought,  a  new  moral  impulse,  to  radically 
change  the  social  environment,  will  have  to  be  given  a  freer  recogni- 
tion than  most  modern  psychologists  have  been  wont  to  give  it. "  2 

I  think  it  may  be  asserted,  accordingly,  that  the  East  is  capable  of 
receiving  enduring  influence  from  the  West,  and  that  it  is  doing  so 
and  would  continue  to  do  so,  even  though  Western  political  coercion 
ceased  to  be  aggressive.  After  all,  there  is  no  power  like  the  power 
of  great  thoughts.  The  influence  of  coercion  in  the  end  becomes 
merely  the  influence  of  the  great  thoughts  for  which  coercion  obtains 
more  or  less  freedom  of  operation.  And  these  thoughts  have  gone 
out  over  the  world  and  are  at  work  in  the  East.  Asiatic  life  cannot 
be  again  the  placid,  picturesque  acceptance  of  lawlessness  or  of  the 
lawless  legality  described  by  Mr.  Townsend.  New  ideas  are  working 
in  men's  minds  and  old  ideas  which  men  have  always  cherished  or 
dreamed  have  assumed  an  aspect  of  practicability  through  intercourse 
with  the  West,  which  has  led  to  great  upheavals  like  some  of  these 
we  have  considered,  and  will  lead,  we  may  be  sure,  to  more,  even  if 
the  aggressive  outgoing  of  the  West  should  cease. 

But  the  outgoing  of  the  West  cannot  cease.  The  missionary 
movement  might  be  stopped  absolutely  and  yet  the  great  projection 
of  the  West  upon  the  East  would  continue.  *It  is  inevitable.  \The 
spirit  of  life  in  the  West,  the  new  imperialism,  the  demands  of  com- 
merce, the  tides  of  emigration  or  of  colonization,  the  irresistible  in- 
terplay of  the  world  forces,  the  sure  will  of  God,  we  may  believe, 
will  bring  West  and  East  into  ever  closer  relations  and  shake  in  all 
the  Orient  the  things  that  have  been  established^  Subtracting  the 
missionary  movement  would  not  eliminate  the  force  that  is  working 
for  the  change  of  Asia.  The  West  would  continue  to  go  out  into  the 
East  and  the  South  and  to  affect  the  whole  world.  The  diverse  civ- 
ilizations are  already  in  contact,  and  cannot  be  separated.     To  with- 

1  The  Awakening  of  the  East,  pp,  17 1- 1 73. 

2  Mission  News,  Yokohama,  Vol.  IV,  No.  4,  January  26,  1901,  p.  57. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  663 

draw  Christian  missions  is  not  to  escape  the  conflict  but  simply  to  >A 
weaken  the  force  of  the  civilization  of  the  West  and  to  provide  the 
great  struggle  with  an  atmosphere  of  secularism  and  selfishness,  un- 
touched by  the  pity  of  Christianity,  in  which  it  is  impossible  that  the 
right  issue  should  be  reached.1 

We  may  lament  the  extension  of  Western  influence  over  Asia  by 
some  of  the  political  means  that  Western  nations  stoop  to  use.     We 
naturally  abhor  the  spirit  of  such  dealings  as  those  of  the  West  with 
China,  where  as   Mr.  Kidd  says   "the  competitive  exploitation  of 
Chinese  resources  proceeds  in  an  environment  of  international  in- 
trigue, of  social  squalor,  and  of  moral  outrage  and  degradation,  al- 
most without  equal  in  history."  2     We  cannot  regard  the  course  of 
France  in  Siam  without  contempt.3     And  yet  all  this  only  emphasizes  . 
indisputably  the  fact  that  the  Western  movement  upon  the  East  is  — 
certain  and  inevitable  ;  whether  by  evil  or  by  good  ;  whether  for  evil* 
or  for  godd.     And  we  may  believe  that  the  balance  is  unquestionably 
on  the  side  of  good.      "The  Christian  view  of  politics,"  writes  a 
thoughtful  missionary,  "emphasizes  the  burden  of  Government  and 
the  responsibility  of  dominion,  and  thereby  transforms  empire  from 
an  ambition  to  an  opportunity.     Blindly  and  unworthily,  yet,  under 
God,  surely  and  steadily,  the   Christian  nations  are  subduing  the 
world,  in  order  to  make  mankind  free."  4 

In  pressing  out  over  the  world,  the  Western  nations  are  discharging 
a  great  duty.5     Much  that  they  have  done  has  been  unjustifiable  in 

1  Reinsch,   World  Politics,  Part  III,  Ch.  III. 
5  Western  Civilization,  p.  460. 

3  Gundry,  China  and  Her  Neighbours,  Chs.  I-VII ;  Brown,  Report  on  Siam  and 
Laos  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  pp.  11-15. 

4  Article  by  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Shedd,  "  Missionary  Policy  and  Political  Princi-  , 
pies,"  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Review,  January,  1901,  p.  47. 

5  At  the  Harvard  Law  School  Alumni  dinner,  in  1904,  Mr.  Richard  Olney  "  de- 
clared that  the  old  order  is  changing  swiftly  and  vitally,  that  lawyers  and 
statesmen  of  seventy-five  years  ago  would  have  been  as  startled  by  current  Amer- 
ican theories  as  scientists  of  that  day  would  have  been  by  modern  scientific  dis- 
coveries ;  and  that,  whether  the  old  order  is  overturning  the  new  or  not,  it  is 
revolutionary.  As  an  illustration  of  this  change,  he  cited  the  work  accomplished 
by  Judge  Taft : 

" '  Having  absolute  mastery  over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  7,500,000  of  people, 
he  has  won  general  admiration  and  applause  by  the  justice  and  skillfulness  of 
his  rule  and  by  the  tact,  patience,  and  humanity  of  his  dealings  with  an  alien  and 
subject  race.  Yet  upon  the  American  lawyer,  steeped  in  the  doctrine  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,  the  inquiry  at  once  forces  itself,  What  place  has  despotism- 
even  the  most  benevolent  and  most  intelligent — in  our  American  political  system, 
and  where,  by  searching,  shall  we  find  it  out  ? ' 


664  Missions  and  Modern  History 

its  nature  and  some  of  it,  even  when  viewed  in  regard  to  its  result. 
But  when  the  world  is  unutilized  by  its  owners  and  is  needed  for  the 
good  of  all,  however  some  may  object,  the  civilized  nations  but  obey 
a  law  which  controls  them  and  ought  to  control  them  when  they  at- 
tempt to  introduce  improvement  and  render  inutility  useful.  In  the 
case  of  the  tropics,  for  example,  "there  is  no  longer  room  for  the 
old  belief    .     .     .     that  the  tropics  may  or  even  must  be  left  to  take 

"  Referring  to  Judge  Taft's  advocacy  of  the  present  Philippine  policy,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  the  Filipino  people,  and,  even  if  it  involved 
some  American  sacrifice,  we  can  afford  it,  he  replied  as  follows : 

" '  But  out  of  any  such  proposition  at  once  issues  another  legal  puzzle  for  the 
modern  American  lawyer  to  find  in  the  National  Constitution  the  principle  of 
altruism;  to  find  in  a  frame  of  government  declared  on  its  face  by  the  people 
adopting  it  to  be  designed  to  "  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our 
posterity  "  any  authority  for  purely  philanthropic  enterprises — any  right  in  that 
government  to  turn  itself  into  a  missionary  to  the  benighted  tribes  of  islands  in 
the  South  Seas,  seven  thousand  miles  from  our  shores;  or  any  power  to  tax  the 
toiling  masses  of  this  country  for  the  benefit  of  motley  groups  of  the  brown  peo- 
ple of  the  tropics,  between  whom  and  the  taxpayers  there  is  absolutely  no  com- 
munity either  of  interest  or  of  sympathy.' 

"  In  one  of  his  lectures  George  William  Curtis  drew  a  contrast  between  the 
statesmanship  of  the  era  of  Daniel  Webster  and  that  of  the  era  of  Charles  Sum- 
ner, William  H.  Seward,  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  Daniel  Webster  asked  only, 
What  is  Constitutional  ?  Sumner,  Seward,  and  Lincoln  asked,  What  is  right  ? 
The  claim  of  Mr.  Seward  that  there  was  a  'higher  law'  than  the  Constitution 
was  greeted  first  with  derision,  then  with  invective.  This  contrast  seems  to  us 
to  reappear  in  these  two  addresses  of  Judge  Taft  and  Mr.  Olney.  In  his  address 
Judge  Taft  does  not,  we  think,  once  refer  either  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  or  to  the  precedents  set  by  the  fathers.  Mr.  Olney  appears  to  recognize 
no  other  standard  than  those  precedents  and  that  Constitution.  He  submits  the 
question  of  our  Filipino  policy  to  the  American  lawyer  '  steeped  in  the  doctrines 
and  traditions  of  the  past.'  He  declares  that  the  new  school  of  thought  finds  no 
support  in  '  any  writings  or  utterances  of  the  great  American  jurists  of  two  genera- 
tions ago,'  and  he  implies,  if  he  does  not  assert,  that  we  cannot  as  a  nation  exer- 
cise benevolence  to  a  poor,  ignorant,  and  suffering  people,  because  we  cannot 
'  find  in  the  National  Constitution  the  principle  of  altruism.'  Thus,  these  two 
speeches  represent  two  spirits  even  more  than  two  principles  of  action :  the  one 
asks,  What  is  ethical,  just,  and  right  for  a  great  nation  to  do  ?  and  assumes  that 
America  is  a  nation,  and  that  the  Constitution  gives  it  power  to  do  what  is  just 
and  right,  unless  that  power  is  expressly  and  in  terms  denied.  The  other  asks, 
What  do  the  written  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  doctrines  and  tra- 
ditions of  the  past  call  upon  us  to  do  ?  and  denies  that  we  may  do  anything  unless 
we  are  called  upon  to  do  it  by  those  traditions  and  that  Constitution.  Mr.  Olney 
is  right  in  implying  that  this  standard  belongs  to  the  old  order,  and  in  declaring 
that  the  new  order  recognizes  a  different  standard  as  a  measure  of  national 
action.  The  more  clearly  this  difference  between  the  old  order  and  the  new  is 
put  before  the  American  people,  the  more  certain  it  is  that  they  will  answer  in  no 
uncertain  sound : 

"  *  Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right 
Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good.'  " 

— The  Outlook,  July,  1904. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  665 

care  of  themselves.  .  .  .  We  have  to  recognize  ...  the 
utter  futility  of  any  policy  based  on  the  conception  that  it  will  be 
possible  in  the  future  to  hold  our  hands  and  stand  aloof  from  the 
tropics.  There  can  be  no  choice  in  the  matter.  .  .  .  If  we  •* 
have  to  meet  the  fact  that  by  force  of  circumstances  the  tropics  must 
be  developed,  and  if  the  evidence  is  equally  emphatic  that  such  a 
development  can  only  take  place  under  the  influence  of  the  white 
man,  we  are  confronted  with  a  larger  issue  than  any  mere  question 
of  commercial  policy  or  of  national  selfishness.  The  tropics  in  such 
circumstances  can  only  be  governed  as  a  trust  for  civilization  and 
with  a  full  sense  of  what  such  a  trust  involves."  1 

Again,  the  civilized  nations  are  beginning  to  perceive  that  they  do 
have  a  duty,  which  is  often  contemptuously  spoken  of,  to  police  the 
world.  The  recognition  of  this  duty  has  been  forced  by  trade. 
"  Governments  in  many  parts  of  the  world  are  too  unstable,  too  cor- 
rupt, to  admit  of  safe  investments  being  made  under  them.  Civil 
courts  in  these  backward  lands  are  often  ruled  by  favouritism  or  brib- 
ery, so  that  the  property  of  a  foreigner  is  not  secure.  From  this  nat- 
urally arises  the  demand  that  stable,  responsible  courts  be  established, 
so  as  to  make  possible  the  development  of  resources,  even  against  the 
will  of  the  inhabitants,  when  they  stubbornly  oppose  all  industrial 
progress."  s  But  this  duty  rests  on  more  secure,  moral  foundations. 
The  principles  of  international  law  recognize  the  rights  of  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  other  States  on  grounds  of  religion  and  humanity. 
The  United  States  interfered  on  the  latter  ground  in  Cuba.  Great 
Britain,  France  and  Russia  interfered  on  both  grounds  in  behalf  of 
the  Greeks  in  1827  and  "in  the  age  which  succeeded  the  Reforma- 
tion, both  self-preservation  and  religious  sympathies  induced  the 
Protestant  States  to  aid  one  another  against  the  superior  might  of  the 
Catholic  and  to  aid  the  votaries  of  their  faith  within  Catholic  coun- 
tries in  order  to  secure  for  them  freedom  of  worship."  3  The  civi- 
lized  nations  have  a  right  to  go  back  of  the  mere  forms  of  procedure 
in  non-civilized  lands  and  to  secure  the  rights  denied  in  those  lands. 
Indeed,  it  is  their  duty  to  do  so  and  in  the  interest  of  trade  they  are 
constantly  doing  so.     To  imply  that  they  have  not  the  right  and  duty 

•  Kidd,  The  Control  of  the  Tropics,  pp.  3,  46,  53. 

2  Reinsch,   World  Politics,  p.  42. 

3  Woolsey,  International  Law,  p.  60. 


666  Missions  and  Modern  History 

is  to  misconceive  the  fiduciary  character  of  civilization.  The  New 
York  Tunes  makes  this  mistake,  when  it  says  that  within  his  domin- 
ions, the  Sultan  "  has  the  right  to  enforce  laws  and  take  measures  for 
the  protection  of  his  person  and  his  Government."  and  that  nothing 
more  may  be  demanded  by  the  United  States  in  the  case  of  its  citi- 
zens on  trial  in  Turkey,  than  that  the  trial  be  fair  and  the  offense  be 
proved.1  Now  missions  ask  no  more  than  this,  but  civilization  asks 
far  more.  Are  the  laws  just?  Civilization  has  a  right  to  ask  this 
question  of  the  uncivilized  nations. 

Even  more,  civilization  has  a  right  and  duty  to  work  towards  the 
recognition  by  the  uncivilized  nations  of  certain  great  principles  for 
which  the  West  is  charged  to  secure  universal  recognition.  "  The 
world  is  slow  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  consciences  of  all  men 
are  free.  No  authority  has  been  given  to  any  human  power  of 
Church  or  State  to  rule  the  moral  nature.  God  has  created  it  free. 
Its  freedom  is  essential  to  its  moral  accountability.  When  therefore 
a  civil  power  undertakes  to  prohibit  by  force  all  contact  of  Christian 
truth  with  the  conscience  of  its  subjects,  it  is  assuming  an  attitude 
which  is  an  offense  to  the  highest  moral  rights  of  the  race  and  usurp- 
ing a  function  which  does  not  rightly  belong  to  human  Govern- 
ments." 2  The  position  of  Mr.  Everett  was  doubtless  sound  enough 
as  a  statement  of  specific  principle  and  expediency  when  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Marsh  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  could  not 
"reverse  the  decision  of  regular  tribunals  when  missionaries  are  con- 
demned for  teaching  doctrines  not  tolerated  by  the  secular  power,  in 
cases  when  there  is  no  treaty  guarantee  for  their  toleration."  3  But 
the  civilized  nations  have  just  the  same  right  and  duty  to  secure 
the  official  recognition  of  the  principle  of  universal  religious 
toleration  that  they  had  to  stop  the  African  slave  trade.  And 
President  Grant  and  Secretary  Seward  took  this  view  of  the 
duty  of  America  when  they  protested  against  the  proclamation 
of  the  Mikado  reviving  the  ancient  prohibitive  decrees  against 
Christianity  in  Japan.  On  receipt  of  the  proclamation  Mr.  Seward 
wrote  that  the  President  "  regards  the  proclamation  as  not  merely 
ill-judged  but  as  injurious  and  offensive  to  the  United  States  and  to 

1  Editorial,  "  Missions  and  Revolutions,"  May  6,  1902. 

8  The  Missionary  Review,  Article,  "  The  American  Missionary  in  the  Orient," 
November,  1889,  p.  809. 

3  Missions  at  Ilovie  and  Abroad,  p.  465. 


Missions  and  the   World-Movement  667 

all  other  Christian  states,  and  as  directly  conflicting  with  the  Eighth 
Article  of  the  Treaty  of  1858,  and  no  less  in  conflict  with  the  tolerat- 
ing principles  and  spirit  which  prevail  throughout  the  world.  You 
are  advised,  therefore,  that  the  United  States  cannot  acquiesce  in  or 
submit  to  the  Mikado's  proclamation."  1  And  Mr.  Foster  conceives 
that  we  have  some  such  real  religious  mission  as  a  nation.  He  closes 
his  volume  on  the  honourable  record  of  American  Diplomacy  in  the 
East  with  the  remark  that  the  nation's  "task  will  be  well  done  if  it 
shall  aid  in  giving  to  the  world  a  freer  market  and  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Orient  the  blessings  of  Christian  civilization."  2 

The  only  justification  of  the  Western  movement  is  moral.--  As 
commercial  or  political,  it  cannot  bear  the  judgment  of  history. 
The  only  grounds  on  which  it  can  defend  its  extension  over  unwill- 
ing people  is  the  ground  of  its  moral  superiority,  and  its  purpose  to 
uplift  the  people  over  whom  it  acquires  influence  into  a  higher  life 
and,  after  all,  to  larger  freedom.  There  is  doubtless  much  room  for 
cant  and  hypocrisy  here,  but  on  any  other  ground  our  presence  in 
Asia  and  Africa  is  unwarranted.  What  Lord  Lawrence  said  of 
British  rule  in  India  defines  the  only  warrant  of  Western  influence 
anywhere :  "  We  have  not  been  elected  or  placed  in  power  by  the 
people,  but  we  are  here  through  our  moral  superiority,  by  the  force 
of  circumstances,  by  the  will  of  Providence.  This  alone  constitutes 
our  charter  to  govern  India."  3  The  inevitable  projection  of  the 
West  on  Asia  is  defensible  only  on  this  ground. 

Many  would  concede  this  who  yet  maintain  that  the  Western  move- 
ment should  be  in  Asia  as  a  high  moral  movement  alone,  that  it 
should  not  interfere  with  the  religions  of  the  East,  and  that  therefore 
the  missionary  enterprise  should  be  eliminated  as  intrusive.  Such 
proposals  are  futile  and  they  betray  an  utter  ignorance  of  the  real 
character  of  the  conflict  between  the  two  civilizations  represented  in 
this  movement.  The  influence  of  the  West  on  Asia  is  of  necessity 
religious.  In  the  East,  all  life  is  religious — politics,  trade,  social 
custom,  all  human  intercourse.  No  influence  touches  it  without 
religious  results.  Probably  there  has  never  been  even  a  purely 
political  attempt  made  at  Eastern  power  which  the  Eastern  people  did 

1  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  p.  200. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  438. 

s  Memoir  of  Sir  H.  Edwardes,  Vol.  II,  p.  313. 


668  Missions  and  Modern  History 

not  view  in  its  religious  aspects.  When  Napoleon  was  believed  to 
have  designs  upon  India,  "the  British  representative  at  Constan- 
tinople had  influenced  the  Sultan,  Selim  III,  as  Khalif  of  the  Moslem 
world,  to  write  to  Tipu  warning  him  that  the  French  were  bent  on 
'effacing  the  religion  of  the  Prophet  from  the  face  of  the  earth.' 
This  letter  was  forwarded  by  the  Governor-General  of  India  to  Tipu  on 
January  16,  1799.  The  Sultan  of  Mysore  replied  in  a  letter  to  Selim 
on  February  10th,  that  '  in  forty  years  the  English  had  successfully 
subverted  the  Mohammedan  powers  in  the  Carnatic,  Bengal  and 
Oude "...  and  concluded  by  asking  '  What  respect  could  a 
nation  (England)  have  for  the  religion  of  the  Koran  who  everywhere 
had  butcher  shops  open  for  the  sale  of  pork?'"1  Our  trade  is 
distinctly  religious  or  anti-religious  in  its  effects.  When  the  trolleys 
first  came  to  Bangkok,  the  Siamese  were  seen  kneeling  in  the  streets 
praying  to  these  new  and  powerful  gods  and  the  first  trolleys  in 
Seoul,  coinciding  with  a  long  drought,  aroused  intense  religious  op- 
position. "As  travellers  in  the  East  well  know,"  says  Mr.  Nor- 
man, "Oriental  people  are  especially  susceptible  upon  two  points,  of 
which  their  religion  is  the  chief."  2  And  nothing  touches  them  that 
does  not  touch  their  religion.  Our  commercial  invasion,  which  we 
complacently  regard  as  free  from  all  religious  bearings,  does  not  ap- 
pear so  to  a  single  Oriental  or  African  people.  The  Eastern  Ques- 
tion is  of  necessity  a  religious  question,  because  it  is  eastern  and 
there  never  was  supremer  folly  than  that  of  the  people  who  sneer  at 
missions  as  a  force  exterior  to  the  real  movement  of  the  world  and 
missionaries  as  men  and  women  of  no  influence  in  actual  life.  These 
movements  which  we  have  considered  show  how  vitally  religion  and 
politics  are  related  in  the  East  and  I  point  out  now  that  they  would 
continue  to  be  vitally  related  even  if  missions  were  discontinued. 
The  Western  movement  is  a  religious  movement.  It  deals  directly, 
unavoidably  and  powerfully  with  the  Eastern  religions. 

The  contention  accordingly  that  missions  are  a  disturbing  and  rev- 
olutionary force  which  it  would  be  wise  to  remove  so  that  our  re- 
lations with  the  East  should  not  be  hampered  and  embarrassed  with 
the  religious  animosities  aroused  by  our  religious  propaganda  is  a 

1  Dennis,  Eastern  Problems  at  the  Close  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  p.  206 ; 
See  also  Ibid.,  pp.  186,  196. 

8  The  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  p.  304. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  669 

mistaken  contention.1  What  the  real  influence  of  missions  is  we 
shall  see  in  a  moment.  I  would  point  out  now  simply  that  the  whole 
Western  movement  upon  Asia  is  revolutionary  and  subversive,  a  con- 
stant "source  of  political  unrest  and  frequently  of  international 
trouble."  In  comparison  with  territorial  seizures  which  shake 
national  pride  to  its  foundations,  and  trade  development  which  des- 
troys the  institutions  and  vested  interests  of  centuries,  and  wars 
which  lay  waste  great  areas  and  arouse  the  deepest  passions  of  man- 
kind, it  is  puerile  to  talk  of  the  revolutionary  influence  of  missions 
and  the  bitter  wrath  of  the  Eastern  peoples  at  the  Christian  prop- 
aganda. There  is  no  comparison  between  missions  as  a  disturbing 
force,  arousing  resentment  and  preventing  confidence,  and  the  in- 
famy of  the  liquor  and  opium  traffic.2 

And  the  tremendous  subversive  power  of  our  Western  movement  ■ 
is  directed  against  the  non-Christian  religions.  Once  again  let  it  be 
said,  even  if  missions  were  eliminated,  the  projection  of  the  Western 
view  over  Asia  would  continue  and  it  would  work  with  fatal  results 
upon  the  Asiatic  religions.  Those  religions  are  doomed.  They  can-  | 
not  endure  the  contact  of  civilization.  And  as  its  ideas  come  more 
and  more  to  prevail  in  Asia,  the  old  faiths  will  proportionately  lose 
their  power.  They  will  linger  for  centuries,  doubtless  ;  this  is  not 
a  matter  of  a  few  years.  But  the  sanctions  of  the  non-Christian  re- 
ligions are  inadequate  to  support  the  principles  on  which  civilization 
rests,  and  the  world  intercourse  will  "  in  some  sort  convince  the  non- 
Christian  people  of  the  insufficiency  and  nothingness  of  their  religion 
and  lead  individuals  to  seek  after  something  higher  or — which  is 
more  frequent — straightway  into  Nihilism."  3 

If  therefore,  the  East  is  sure  to  be  influenced  by  the  West  irre- 
spective of  Western  coercion,  and  if,  beside,  the  West  is  bound  to 
continue  to  project  itself  aggressively  upon  the  East,  and  if  this  pro- 
jection is  to  be,  as  it  cannot  avoid  being,  religious  in  the  view  of  the 
East,  why  should  we  not  make  it  as  sincerely  and  helpfully  so  as  pos- 

^urzon,  Problems  of  the  Far  East,  pp.  41 8f;  Beaulieu,  The  Awakening  of 
the  East,  p.  230  ;  Ransome,  Japan  in  Transition,  p.  232. 

8  Crafts  and  Leitch,  Protection  of  Native  Races  Against  Intoxicants  and 
Opium. 

3  Plath,  Three  New  Mission  Qtiestions,  pp.  736°.,  quoted  in  Warneck,  Missions 
and  Culture,  p.  369  ;  See  Mrs.  Bishop  in  The  Christian  Express,  March  I,  1 90 1, 
p.  39 ;  Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  p.  76. 


670  Missions  and  Modern  History 

sible  ?  The  idea  of  a  neutral  and  uninfluential  religious  attitude  is 
impossible.  The  Oriental  cannot  take  in  that  conception,  and  no  such 
position  can  be  created.  And  why  should  we  want  to  be  neutral  and 
colourless  ?  If  Christianity  is  at  the  bottom  of  our  civilization,  why 
should  we  not  be  willing  to  acknowledge  it  openly  ?  Let  us  recall 
again  the  view  maintained  by  John  Lawrence:  "In  doing  the  best 
we  can  for  the  people,  we  are  bound  by  our  conscience  and  not  by 
theirs.  Believing  that  the  study  of  the  Bible  is  fraught  with  highest 
blessings,  we  of  course  desire  to  communicate  those  blessings  to  them 
if  we  can.  We  desire  this,  not  only  as  individuals,  but  as  a  Govern- 
ment ;  for  Christianity  does  truly  go  hand  in  hand  with  those  sub- 
jects for  which  British  rule  exists  in  India.  But  this  can  only  be 
effected  by  moral  influences,  voluntarily  received.  Anything  like 
'  proselytism '  or  '  quiet  persecution  '  of  any  kind,  or  the  application 
of  secular  motives,  direct  or  indirect,  are  in  the  first  place,  absolutely 
forbidden  by  the  very  religion  we  profess,  and  in  the  second  place, 
would  be  worse  than  useless  for  the  object  in  view."  x  Western  civi- 
lization with  whatever  shortcomings  is  Christian  civilization  and  it 
should  not  conceal  its  religious  character  in  advancing  upon  the  East. 

But  what  is  chiefly  to  be  pressed  here  is  that  in  this  Western  move- 
ment, missions  have  a  legitimate  and  necessary  place.  What  has 
been  said  suggests  it,  but  more  needs  to  be  added.  The  movement 
needs  missions  because  it  operates  on  peoples,  and  these  Eastern 
peoples  must  not  be  left  without  a  religion.  No  State  can  exist  de- 
prived of  it  and  no  secular  movement,  involving  the  immense  changes 
which  this  movement  involves  dare  ignore  it.  For  as  Woolsey  points 
out,  at  least  three  things  regarding  religion  must  be  kept  in  view  by 
every  State,  "  that  a  corrupt  morality  dissolves  all  the  bonds  of  the 
social  fabric,  that  a  moral  education  of  the  young  is  the  strictly  es- 
sential condition  of  the  stable  and  progressive  society  and  that  re- 
ligion by  its  elevated  truths  and  motives  takes  the  leading  part  in 
forming  the  character  of  a  law-abiding  useful  citizen  and  with  this  in 
view,  ought  to  be  one  of  the  prime  factors  in  education."  2 

The  movement  needs  missions  because  if  these  Eastern  peoples  are 
not  given  the  whole  truth,  they  will  run,  as  the  incidents  we  have  dis- 

1  Memoir  of  Sir  H.   Edwardes,  Vol   II,  p.  313;  See   Smith,   Twelve  Indian 
Statesmen,  pp.  87^;   Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  July,  1901,  pp.  500-5 1 1. 
»  Political  Science,  Vol.  I,  p.  225. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  671 

cussed  indicate,  into  all  sorts  of  falsehoods  and  distortions.  The  mix- 
ture of  truth  and  error  in  these  great  stirrings  of  life  and  the  hunger 
of  men  for  divine  guidance,  so  that  they  will  even  advance  and  accept 
claims  like  those  of  the  Bab  and  Beha,  of  Hung  Siu-tsuen  and 
Choi  Chei  Ou  to  divine  intercourse  or  divine  character,  show  the 
East's  need  of  historic  Christianity,  of  contact  with  the  historic  reve- 
lation. 

And  the  Western  movement  needs  the  Christian  mission  for  its  own 
sake.     It  is  naturally  a  repellent  movement,  operating  often  on  un- 
willing  people.     Mr.   Townsend    even    declares   that   "there  is  no 
corner  of  Asia  where  the  life  of  a  white  man,   if  unprotected  by 
force,  either  actual  or  potential  is  safe  for  an  hour ;  nor  is  there  an 
Asiatic  state  which,  if  it  were  prudent,  would  not  expel  him  at  once 
and  forever."  '     This  assuredly  is  not  true.     Yet  there  is  hostility 
enough  and  there  would  be  far  more,  if  it  were  not  for  the  conciliat- 
ing influence  of  missions.'2     All  writers  on  India  are  agreed  as  to  the 
personal  dislike  of  the  people  for  the  ruling  British  class,  but  those 
who  know  the  country  best,  declare  that  one  class  of  foreigners  as  in- 
dividuals at  least,  are  exempt  from  the  dislike  and  seem  to  mollify  it. 
"I  believe,"   said  Lord  Lawrence,    "notwithstanding  all  that  the 
English  people  have  done  to  benefit  that  country  (India)  the  mission- 
aries have  done  more  than  all  other  agencies  combined.     They  have 
had  arduous  and   up-hill  work,   receiving  no   encouragement,   and 
sometimes  a  great  deal  of  discouragement  from  their  own  country- 
men and  have  had  to  bear  the  taunts  and  obloquy  of  those  who 
despised  and  disliked  their  preaching ;  but  such  has  been  the  effect 
of  their  earnest  zeal,  untiring  devotion  and  of  the  excellent  example 
which  they  have,  I  may  say,  universally  shown  to  the  people,  that  I 
have  no  doubt  whatever,  that  in  spite  of  the  great  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple being  intensely  opposed  to  their  doctrine,  they  are,  as  a  body,  re- 
markably popular  in  the  country.     ...     I  have  a  great  reverence 
and  regard  for  them."     And  Sir  Richard  Temple,  formerly  Governor 
of  Bombay,  said,  "Such  is  their  (the  missionaries')  conduct.     And 
what  is  its  result  ?     It  conduces  to  our  national  fame,  and  adds  sta- 
bility to  the  British  rule  in  India.     The  natives  are  too  apt  to  think 
of  us  as  incited  by  national  aggrandizement,  by  political  extension, 

'  Asia  and  Europe,  p.  98. 

!  Cf.  Mr.  Fukuzawa's  testimony  in  Japan  Weekly  Mail,  May  21,  J89&. 


672  Missions  and  Modern  History 

by  diplomatic  success,  by  military  ambition.  These  adverse  thoughts 
of  theirs  are  no  doubt,  mitigated  by  the  justice  of  our  laws,  by  our 
state  education,  by  the  spread  of  our  medical  science,  by  our  sanitary 
arrangements  and  above  all,  by  our  efforts  to  mitigate  or  avert  famine. 
But  beyond  all  these,  I  am  bound  to  mention  the  effects  of  the  ex- 
ample of  the  life  and  of  the  conduct  of  the  Christian  missionaries."  ' 
And  as  has  been  seen  in  many  lands,  missionaries  have  rendered 
service  to  States,  their  own  or  others,  which  have  been  gratefully  rec- 
ognized as  promoting  the  peace  and  efficiency  of  contact  between 
East  and  West.  Mr.  Cushing  openly  acknowledged  in  1845  his  in- 
debtedness to  Dr.  Bridgman  and  Dr.  Parker.  He  wrote  to  a  corre- 
spondent : 

"  It  is  true  that  in  the  late  negotiations  with  China,  the  most  important,  not  to 
say  indispensable  service,  was  derived  from  American  missionaries,  and  more 
especially  from  Dr.  Bridgman  and  Dr.  Parker.  They  possessed  the  rare  quali- 
fication of  understanding  the  Chinese  language,  which  enabled  them  to  act  as 
interpreters  to  the  legation  ;  their  intimate  knowledge  of  China  and  the  Chinese 
made  them  invaluable  as  advisers,  and  their  high  character  contributed  to  give 
weight  and  moral  strength  to  the  mission,  and  while  their  cooperation  with  me 
was  thus  of  eminent  utility  to  the  United  States  it  will  prove,  I  trust,  not  less 
useful  to  the  general  cause  of  humanity  and  of  religion  in  the  East. 

"  But  the  particular  service  rendered  by  the  American  missionaries  in  this 
case,  is  but  one  of  a  great  class  of  facts,  appertaining  to  the  whole  body  of  Chris- 
tian missionaries  in  China. 

"  In  the  first  place,  other  legations  to  China  have  been  equally  dependent  on 
the  Christian  missionaries  for  the  means  of  intercourse  with  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment, of  which  well-known  examples  occur  in  the  history  of  successive  British 
embassies  of  Lord  Macartney,  Lord  Amherst,  and  Sir  Henry  Pottinger. 

"  In  the  second  place,  the  great  bulk  of  the  general  information  we  possess  in 
regard  to  China,  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  primary  philological  information 
concerning  the  two  great  languages  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  namely  the  Chinese 
and  the  Manchu,  are  derived  through  the  missionaries,  both  Catholic  and  Prot- 
estant." 

[Here  follows  a  long  list  of  philological  works,  prepared  by  different  mis- 
sionaries.] 

"  In  thus  briefly  answering  your  inquiry  on  a  single  point  in  the  history  of 
Christian  missions,  namely,  their  incidental  usefulness,  permit  me  to  add,  that, 
eminently  great  as  this  their  incidental  utility  has  been,  it  is  but  a  small  point, 

1  Independent  Testimony  Concerning  Missionary  Work,  p.  9 ;  See  Proclama- 
tion of  Ts'en,  Governor  of  Shan-si,  in  Record  of  Christian  Work,  June,  1902, 

PP-  453f- 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  673 

comparatively,  among  the  great  and  good  deeds  of  the  religious  missionaries  in 
the  East.  There  is  not  a  nobler  nor  a  more  deeply  interesting  chapter  than  this 
in  the  history  of  human  courage,  intellect,  self-sacrifice,  greatness,  and  virtue  ; 
and  it  remains  yet  to  be  written  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  dignity  of  the  subject, 
and  of  its  relations  to  civilization  and  Government,  as  well  as  to  the  Christian 
Church."  1 

In  his  report  to  his  Government,  which  Mr.  Reed,  the  American 
Minister  made  regarding  the  treaty  between  the  United  States  and 
China  in  1858,  after  the  Arrow  War,  Mr.  Reed  bears  testimony  to 
the  services  of  the  American  missionaries  : 

"  I  cannot  allow  this  occasion  to  pass  without  an  incidental  tribute  to  the  mis- 
sionary cause,  as  I  observe  it  promoted  by  my  own  countrymen  in  China. 
Having  no  enthusiasm  on  the  subject,  I  am  bound  to  say  that  I  consider  the 
missionary  element  in  China  a  great  conservative  and  protecting  principle.  It  is 
the  only  barrier  between  the  unhesitating  advance  of  commercial  adventure,  and 
the  not  incongruous  element  of  Chinese  imbecile  corruption.  The  missionary, 
according  to  my  observation,  is  content  to  live  under  the  treaty  and  the  law  it 
creates,  or  if  in  his  zeal  he  chooses  to  go  beyond  it,  he  is  content  to  take  the  risk 
without  troubling  his  Government  to  protect  him  in  his  exorbitance.  But  taking 
a  lower  and  more  practical  view  of  the  matter,  I  am  bound  to  say  further  that  the 
studies  of  the  missionary  and  those  connected  with  the  missionary  cause  are  es- 
sential to  the  interests  of  our  country.  Without  them  as  interpreters  the  public 
business  could  not  be  transacted.  I  could  not  but  for  their  aid  have  advanced 
one  step  in  the  discharge  of  my  duties  here,  or  read,  or  written,  or  understood 
one  work  of  correspondence  or  treaty  stipulations.  With  them  there  has  been  no 
difficulty  or  embarrassment.  It  was  the  case  also  in  1844,  when  Mr.  Cushing's 
interpreters  and  assistants  were  all  from  the  same  class  ;  in  1853,  with  Mr. 
Marshall,  and  1854,  with  Mr.  McLane.  Dr.  Bridgman,  who  was  the  principal 
assistant  in  all  these  public  duties,  still  lives  in  an  active  exercise  of  his  useful- 
ness ;  and  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  expressing  to  him  my  thanks  for  inci- 
dental assistance,  and  constant  and  most  valuable  counsel.  My  principal  inter- 
preter for  the  spoken  language  of  the  north  has  been  the  Rev.  W.  A.  P.  Martin, 
of  Indiana,  of  the  Presbyterian  Board.  There  is  not  an  American  merchant  in 
China  (and  I  have  heard  of  but  one  English)  who  can  write  or  read  a  single 
sentence  of  Chinese,  and  the  spoken  language  is  the  hideous  compound  that 
prevails  at  the  open  ports,  which  has  no  single  merit  to  recommend  it,  but  suf- 
fices to  convey  the  imperious  mandates  one  universally  bears  to  inferiors,  or  the 
mutual  cravings  of  ordinary  traffic.  The  missionary  tries  and  succeeds  in  learn- 
ing to  speak  Chinese,  or  in  teaching  the  Chinese  to  speak  English."2 

When  S.  Wells  Williams  resigned  his  place  as  secretary  and  inter- 

1  Bridgman,  The  Missionary  Pioneer,  pp.  I32f. 
»  Life  and  Letters  of  S.   Wells  Williams,  pp.  274ft 


674  Missions  and  Modern  History 

preter  in  the  American  Legation  in  Peking,  Mr.  Fish,  Secretary  of 
State,  replied  personally  as  follows : 

"  Your  official  letter  of  resignation  will  be  officially  acknowledged,  but  I  must 
in  acknowledging  your  letter  addressed  to  myself  say  that  I  feel  that  the  service 
is  losing  one  of  its  most  trusted  officers,  one  whose  name  and  reputation  have 
ever  reflected  credit  upon  the  position,  and  upon  the  country  whose  officer  he 
was,  and  whose  high  personal  character  will  long  be  remembered  with  respect 
and  with  admiration." 

The  formal  notification  of  the  acceptance  of  his  resignation  by  the 
State  Department  contained  the  following  recognition  of  Mr.  Will- 
iams' services  to  his  country  and  influence  in  China. 

"...  Your  knowledge  of  the  character  and  habits  of  the  Chinese  and  of 
the  wants  and  necessities  of  the  people  and  the  Government,  and  your  familiarity 
with  their  language,  added  to  your  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christianity  and  the 
advancement  of  civilization,  have  made  for  you  a  record  of  which  you  have  every 
reason  to  be  proud.  Your  unrivalled  Dictionary  of  the  Chinese  Language  and 
various  works  on  China  have  gained  for  you  a  deservedly  high  position  in  scien- 
tific and  literary  circles.  Above  all  the  Christian  world  will  not  forget  that  to 
you  more  than  to  any  other  man  is  due  the  insertion  in  our  treaty  with  China  of 
the  liberal  provision  for  the  toleration  of  the  Christian  religion." ' 

The  Western  people  who  reside  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  in  Asia 
and  Africa  need  the  tonic  stimulus  of  the  mission  to  preserve  their 
standard  and  moral  ideal.  "  In  climatic  conditions  which  are  a  bur- 
den to  him ;  in  the  midst  of  races  in  a  different  and  lower  stage  of  de- 
velopment ;  divorced  from  the  influences  which  have  produced  him, 
from  the  moral  and  political  environment  from  which  he  sprang,  the 
white  man  does  not  in  the  end,  in  such  circumstances,  tend  so  much 
to  raise  the  level  of  the  races  amongst  whom  he  has  made  his  un- 
natural home,  as  he  tends  himself  to  sink  slowly  to  the  level  around 
him."  2  This  was  written  of  colonization  in  the  tropics,  but  the  prin- 
ciple of  it  is  true  of  Western  life  transplanted  anywhere  into  the  East  or 
South.  Perhaps  this  is  one  explanation  of  the  dislike  of  the  mission- 
ary on  the  part  of  the  mercantile  representation  from  the  West  in 

1  The  Life  and  Letters  of  S.  Welts  Williams,  p.  412  ;  See  also  Griffis,  Verbeck 
of  Japan,  p.  262.  "  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  last  century,"  says  the  Hon.  John 
W.  Foster,  "  the  Christian  missionaries  were  an  absolute  necessity  to  diplomatic 
intercourse"  (Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  p.  III).  At  the  open- 
ing in  February  1904,  of  the  Anglo- Japanese  Museum  in  Tientsin,  Sir  Ernest 
Satow,  the  British  Minister  at  Peking,  said  that  "  of  the  many  classes  of  people 
who  come  to  China  the  missionary  was  and  is  most  useful." 

">  Kidd,  The  Control  of  the  Tropics,  pp.  5of. 


,N 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  675 

Asia,  which  Lord  Curzon  finds  difficult  of  understanding.1  We  do 
not  like  over-much  the  presence  of  the  sterner  standard  and  its  evi- 
dent condemnation  of  our  life.  Even  where  there  is  no  immorality 
on  the  part  of  Western  peoples  in  Asia,  the  missionary's  attitude  of 
considerateness  and  equality  towards  the  people  chafes  them.  But 
its  necessity  is  only  the  more  evident. 

Once  again,  missions  are  really  the  most  constructive  force  at  work 
in  the  Western  propaganda,  partly  because  they  alone  aim  at  once  at 
the  transformation  of  character  and  the  establishment  of  homes  on 
the  Christian  conception  of  the  family,  and  partly  because  they  alone 
underbase  Western  civilization  with  right  principle  and  so  settle 
it  on  secure  foundations.  The  Prince  of  Wales  (now  Edward  VII) 
recognized  the  necessity  of  this  when  on  his  visit  to  India  in  1895, 
he  said  to  a  deputation  of  missionaries  and  native  Christians,  "It  is 
a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  find  my  countrymen  engaged  in  offering 
to  our  Indian  fellow  subjects  those  truths  which  form  the  foundation 
of  our  own  social  and  political  system,  and  which,  we,  ourselves, 
esteem  as  our  most  valued  possession."  As  a  simple  matter  of  fact, 
no  reproduction  anywhere  of  Christian  civilization  is  possible  or  has 
ever  been  accomplished  without  the  open  or  tacit  acceptance  of  the 
Christian  principles  underlying  it.  "  Wherever  there  has  been  the 
slightest  spark  of  civilization  in  the  South  Seas,"  said  James  Chal- 
mers, "it  has  been  where  the  Gospel  has  been  preached."2  As 
Prof.  Gaston  Bonet-Maury  confidently  asserts,  "  we  have  a  well 
founded  right  to  say  that  the  most  certain  and  effective  agent  of 
civilization  is  the  missionary."  * 

One  of  the  most  experienced  and  successful  missionaries  in  Africa, 
Dr.  James  Stewart,  bears  similar  testimony  as  to  the  futility  of  a 
purely  secular  propaganda  to  do  the  necessary  work  of  elevation  : 

"  Trade  and  commerce  have  been  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  for  more  than 
three  centuries.  What  have  they  made  of  that  region  ?  Some  of  its  tribes  are 
more  hopeless,  more  sunken  morally  and  socially,  and  rapidly  becoming  more 
commercially  valueless,  than  any  tribes  that  may  be  found  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  continent.     Mere  commercial  influence  by  its  example  or  its  teaching  during  all 

1  Problems  of  the  Far  East,  pp.  4i8f. 

2  Mackenzie,  Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man,  pp.  I38f. 

3  Art.   in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  quoted  in    The  Missionary  Review  of  the 
World,  August,  1904,  pp.  6l2f. 


676  Missions  and  Modern  History 

that  time  has  had  little  effect  on  the  cruelty  and  reckless  shedding  of  blood  and 
the  human  sacrifices  of  the  besotted  paganism  which  still  exists  near  that  coast. 

"  It  may  be  said  that  it  is  not  the  direct  aim  or  duty  of  these  commercial  in- 
fluences to  civilize  or  improve  morally.  There  is  every  reason  for  believing 
that  they  neither  can  nor  wish  to  do  such  work,  in  spite  of  all  belief  to  the  con- 
trary. If  a  wholesome  and  beneficial  civilization  is  to  be  introduced,  that  can 
only  be  done  by  the  introduction  and  direct  teaching  of  Christianity,  and  that  is 
best  done  by  Christian  missions ;  and  as  the  scale  of  the  continent  is  so  large,  so 
also  would  require  to  be  the  scale  of  missionary  work. 

"  The  fond  belief  of  many,  that  the  best  way  to  Christianize  is  to  civilize  first, 
consequently  falls  to  the  ground.  Still  this  is  a  delusion  which  many  continue 
to  cherish.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  purely  philanthiopic  or  civilizing  efforts, 
even  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  apart  from  the  spirit  of  Christian  missions  have 
not  succeeded.  The  strongest  statement  has  yet  to  be  made,  and  it  rests  on  a 
conclusion  gathered  from  observation  and  experiment.  It  cannot  be  said  that 
civilization  sprang  out  of  Christianity  ;  nor  yet  that  civilizations  have  not  existed 
apart  from  Christianity ;  both  statements  would  be  untrue.  But,  speaking  of 
races  that  have  fallen  to  a  certain  low  level,  all  modern  experience  seems  to  show 
that  they  are  never  truly  civilized  by  the  direct  processes,  hasty  methods,  or  in- 
cidental influences  of  a  civilization  which  settles  down  among  them  chiefly  for  its 
own  ends  or  private  gain. 

"  This  denial  of  the  power  of  a  purely  Utilitarian  civilization  to  civilize  ef- 
fectively, beneficially,  and  permanently,  may  be  rejected  by  some  as  resting  only 
on  African  missionary  evidence;  and  missionary  opinion,  as  some  think,  is  often 
lacking  in  breadth  and  calmness.  It  requires  to  be  used,  however,  as  it  is  some- 
times all  we  get.  Similar  evidence  comes  from  other  parts  of  the  world  from 
missionaries  who  have  spent  their  lives  in  close  contact  with  these  backward 
races,  and  it  should  have  some  value.  From  New  Guinea  there  comes  the  same 
conclusion  as  from  any  part  of  the  African  continent.  James  Chalmers,  one  of 
those  simple  great  souls  who  do  their  duty  and  scorn  the  consequence,  even  if 
that  should  be  the  loss  of  life  itself,  says :  '  I  have  had  twenty-one  years'  expe- 
rience among  natives.  I  have  lived  with  the  Christian  native,  and  I  have  lived, 
and  dined,  and  slept  with  cannibals.  But  I  have  never  yet  met  with  a  single  man 
or  woman,  or  with  a  single  people,  that  civilization  without  Christianity  has 
civilized.' 

"  The  truth  seems  to  be  this :  If  we  are  to  try  to  make  a  new  continent,  we 
must  have  a  new  man  to  put  into  it,  otherwise  it  will  be  the  old  story.  We  may 
sweep  the  house  and  garnish  it  with  such  ideas,  inventions,  or  furniture  as  the 
twentieth  century  can  supply.  This  looks  promising,  for  the  twentieth  century 
is  great  and  strong,  bold  and  inventive,  confident  in  its  power,  and  hopeful  of  far 
greater  things  in  the  time  that  is  coming  than  have  been  achieved  in  the  past. 
Yet  with  all  this  there  is  no  guarantee  that  the  renewed  continent  may  not  be,  if 
not  as  bad,  yet  very  little  better  than  before.  Such  things  have  happened  ere 
this.     Non-Christian  civilizations  have  come  to  grief,  and  disappeared  off  the 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  677 

face  of  the  earth  for  want  of  some  essential  moral  element.  Non-spiritual 
reformations  in  the  case  of  individual  men  have  allowed  them  to  go  back  to 
their  old  sins,  and  left  them  in  the  end  dispirited,  broken,  and  despairing  of 
themselves. 

«'  All  the  appliances  of  modern  civilization — schools,  printing  presses,  railways, 
telegraphs,  and  towns — are  excellent  and  necessary.  Many  or  all  of  these  things 
can  be  found  to-day  in  Central  Africa,  in  places  the  very  names  of  which  we  did 
not  know  thirty  years  ago.  Such  things,  however,  only  excite  the  native's 
curiosity,  they  do  not  move  his  heart  nor  touch  the  springs  of  action ;  they  are 
not  strong  enough  to  make  the  new  continent,  and  the  new  man  to  live  in  it. 
On  the  indurated  mental  and  moral  surface  of  unbroken  heathenism  they  make 
little  or  no  abiding  impression.  They  are  assigned  to  witchcraft;  or  they  are 
put  down  amongst  many  other  unaccountable  doings  of  these  unaccountable  men 
— who  are  white. 

"  Here,  then,  we  may  reach  some  conclusions  which  seem  legitimate  enough. 
One  is  the  logical  soundness  of  the  missionary  principle,  and  the  practical  sound- 
ness of  the  general  missionary  method,  which  is  this — for  spiritual  ends,  spiritual 
agencies.  Another  conclusion  which  may  be  assumed,  if  not  wholly  proved,  is 
that  only  a  Christian  civilization,  as  so  far  already  defined,  or  one  with  a  religious 
element,  can  benefit  the  people  of  that  continent.  And  if  among  the  religions  of 
the  world  we  are  to  choose  a  power  fit,  able,  strong  enough  for  the  work  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  regeneration  of  a  whole  continent,  we  shall  find  that  power 
in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  find  it  only  there."  > 

This  is  the  fact  because  it  is  the  principle.  "  The  image  of  Christ 
remains  the  sole  basis  of  all  moral  culture,  and  in  the  measure  in 
which  it  succeeds  in  making  its  light  penetrate  is  the  moral  culture 
of  the  nations  increased  or  diminished."  * 

"Statesmen  do  far  less  than  is  supposed,"  says  Mr.  Morley,  "  far 
less  than  is  implied  in  their  resounding  fame,  to  augment  the  material 
prosperity  of  nations.  ...  To  improve  man's  outward  condi- 
tion is  not  to  improve  man  himself;  this  must  come  from  each  man's 
endeavour  within  his  own  breast ;  without  that  there  can  be  little 
ground  for  social  hope."  3     Sir  W.  Mackworth  Young,  K.  C.  S.  I., 

1  Stewart,  Dawn  in  the  Dark  Continent,  pp.  24-28.  And  the  principle  which 
Dr.  Stewart  sets  forth  in  the  case  of  low  people  holds  as  truly  of  great  nations. 
"  The  naval  and  military  resuscitation  of  a  great  people,"  says  the  London 
Times,  "  presupposes  and  depends  upon  their  moral  regeneration.  Without  that 
arms  and  ships  are  mere  costly  encumbrances.  It  is  the  man  behind  the  gun, 
and  the  man  who  commands  him,  that  count,  and  they  are  the  product  of  a  long 
and  moral  and  intellectual  training"  (Quoted  in  The  Presbyterian  Banner,  June 
30,  1904.) 

2  Quoted  by  Harnack,  What  is  Christianity,  p.  133 ;  see  Dennis,  Christian 
Missions  and  Social  Progress,  Vol.  I,  pp.  403-465. 

3  Morley,  Life  of  Gladstone,  Vol.  I,  p.  5. 


678  Missions  and  Modern  History 

late  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Punjab,  in  an  address  at  St.  Mi- 
chael's, Cornhill,  on  March  4,  1902,  after  referring  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  India  and  the  loyalty  of  the  people,  gave  an  estimate  of 
the  importance  of  mission  work,  of  singular  significance  in  its  frank 
assertion  of  this  superiority  of  moral  forces  to  politics  as  an  uplifting 
influence.     His  testimony  no  one  could  impugn. 

"  As  a  business  man  speaking  to  business  men  I  am  prepared  to  say  that  the 
work  which  has  been  done  by  missionary  agency  in  India  exceeds  in  importance 
all  that  has  been  done  (and  much  has  been  done)  by  the  British  Government  in 
India  since  its  commencement.  Let  me  take  the  province  which  I  know  best. 
I  ask  myself  what  has  been  the  most  potent  influence  which  has  been  working 
among  the  people  since  annexation  fifty-four  years  ago,  and  to  that  question  I 
feel  there  is  but  one  answer — Christianity,  as  set  forth  in  the  lives  and  teaching 
of  Christian  missionaries.  I  do  not  underestimate  the  forces  which  have  been 
brought  to  bear  on  the  races  in  the  Punjab  by  our  beneficent  rule,  by  British 
justice  and  enlightenment;  but  I  am  convinced  that  the  effect  on  native  character 
produced  by  the  self-denying  labours  of  missionaries  is  far  greater.  The  Punjab 
bears  on  its  historical  roll  the  names  of  many  Christian  statesmen  who  have 
honoured  God  by  their  lives  and  endeared  themselves  to  the  people  by  their 
faithful  work ;  but  I  venture  to  say  that  if  they  could  speak  to  us  from  the  great 
unseen,  there  is  not  one  of  them  who  would  not  proclaim  that  the  work  done  by 
men  like  French,  Clark,  Newton,  and  Forman,  who  went  in  and  out  among  the 
people  for  a  whole  generation  or  more,  and  who  preached  by  their  lives  the 
nobility  of  self-sacrifice,  and  the  lesson  of  love  to  God  and  man,  is  a  higher  and 
nobler  work,  and  more  far-reaching  in  its  consequences."  l 

It  is  futile  to  hope  for  the  civilization  of  China  and  therefore  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  work  of  the  West  for  her,  without  Chris- 
tianity. As  one  who  knows  the  Chinese  as  intimately  as  any  for- 
eigner has  ever  known  them,  has  said,  "In  the  first  place,  the  evils 
to  which  the  existing  social  condition  is  due  are  deep-seated  and 
ancient,  and  their  roots  are  intertwined  with  the  whole  social  system. 
In  the  second  place,  the  only  impulse  towards  a  serious  inquiry  into  the 
cause  and  possible  cure  of  these  evils  comes  from  outside  the  present 
social  system  and  is  directly  connected  with  Christianity.  In  the 
third  place,  these  evils  can  seldom  be  dealt  with  directly.  It  is  not 
enough  to  introduce  new  conditions.  The  '  personal  equation '  is 
the  largest  and  most  essential  factor  of  all,  and  without  a  modification 
of  the  individuals  who  compose  society,  under  any  imaginable  new 

1  Quoted  in  The  Punjab  Mission  Arews,  April  15,  1902. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  679 

condition,  the  old  evils  will  presently  appear  with  seven  other  spirits 
worse  than  the  first.  Previous  to  experience,  it  would  have  seemed 
tolerably  safe  to  predict  that  it  would  be  easier  to  modify  the  social 
condition  of  a  non- Christian  community  than  to  modify  its  religious 
condition ;  but  as  the  result  of  experience,  it  appears  that  it  is  easier 
to  introduce  Christianity,  than  to  alter  the  type  of  the  current  civi- 
lization, and  that  the  only  permanently  successful  way  to  alter  the 
civilization  is  first  to  introduce  Christianity."  1  Yet  some  have  pro- 
posed to  withdraw  the  only  conciliating  and  constructive  force  at 
work  in  China,  to  demolish  the  old  institutions  and  ideals  by  the 
crash  against  them  of  the  remorselessly  destructive  agency  of  Western 
trade  and  secular  civilization  and  then  let  the  ruins  alone  to  recreate 
themselves. 

The  relation  of  missions  to  the  permanence  and  purity  of  civiliza- 
tion in  India  has  been  admitted  repeatedly  by  those  best  able  to  judge. 
The  great  moral  reforms  have  been  accomplished  either  by  the  moral 
work  of  the  missionaries,  or  by  the  pressure  their  presence  and 
standard  of  life  have  exerted  upon  the  Government.*  The  necessity 
of  their  work  as  a  supplement  and  corrective  of  the  theoretically 
neutral  but  the  actively  agnostic  influence  of  the  Government  educa- 
tion has  been  recognized.  "The  present  teaching  in  the  Govern- 
ment high  schools  and  colleges,"  says  a  lifelong  resident  of  the  Pun- 
jab, "with  its  so-called  religious  neutrality  is  only  throwing  a  thick 
veil  over  the  land,  hiding  from  it  all  true  light  and  life,  whilst  it  is 
sapping  the  foundations  of  all  creeds  and  proving  itself  to  be  most 
destructive  to  morality  and  to  all  good  government  in  this  life  as  well 
as  all  hope  in  the  world  to  come." 3  Another  resident  of  India,  the 
late  Bishop  Parker  of  the  Methodist  Church,  wrote:  "Concerning 
teaching  in  Government  schools,  the  natural  result  of  the  system  is 
to  destroy  religion,  to  break  down  feelings  of  moral  obligation  and  to 
raise  up  a  proud,  unsatisfied,  discontented,  complaining  class."4 
This  is  not  the  missionary  view  alone.  "  There  is  an  increasing  un- 
rest among  the  classes  who  have  been  educated  under  the  Western 

1  Missionary  Review   of  the  World,    Article  by  the  Rev.  Arthur    H.   Smith, 
D.  D.,  "Foreign  Missions  and  Sociology  in  China,"  February,  1895,  P-  ^9- 
?  Young,  Great  Value  and  Success  of  Foreign  Missions,  pp.  90?. 

3  Robert  Clarke's  testimony  in  Special  Revised  Report  ott  Educational  Missions 
in  India,  presented  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  1890, 
p.  19. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  80. 


680  Missions  and  Modern  History 

system,"  writes  Sir  R.  Temple,1  and  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter  says  :  "  I 
found  from  taking  the  evidence  of  193  witnesses  throughout  India, 
as  President  of  the  Education  Commission,  that  those  leaders  were 
unanimous  in  lamenting  the  absence  of  religious  teaching  in  our  state 
schools  in  every  province  of  the  Indian  Empire. ' ' a  Seeing  no  way 
of  escape,  some  Indian  administrations  have  adopted  the  policy  of 
getting  missions  to  do  for  the  Government  what  its  theory  of  neutrality 
prevented  it  from  doing  for  itself.  In  1887,  Lord  Dufferin  said  :  "In 
aided  schools  religious  instruction  may,  of  course,  be  freely  given,  and 
the  Governor- General  in  Council  would  be  sincerely  glad  if  the  number 
of  aided  schools  and  colleges  in  which  religious  instruction  is  prom- 
inently recognized  were  largely  increased.  It  is  in  this  direction 
that  the  best  solution  of  this  difficult  problem  can  be  found."  3 

And  in  a  yet  larger  way,  the  mission  enterprise  is  indispensable  to 
Great  Britain  in  India.4  As  has  been  already  suggested,  the  Chris- 
tians are  the  only  reliably  loyal  body  of  the  India  people,  and  the 
only  sure  ground  of  Great  Britain's  continued  peaceful  tenure  of  the 
land  is  found  in  its  Christianization.5  The  services  of  the  missions 
in  this  regard  have  been  officially  acknowledged.  "  The  Govern- 
ment of  India  cannot  but  acknowledge,"  said  a  report  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  and  Council  of  India,  in  moderate  language  thirty  years 
ago,  "the  great  obligation  under  which  it  is  laid,  by  the  benevolent 
exertions  made  by  these  600  missionaries,  whose  blameless  example 
and  self-denying  labours  are  infusing  new  vigour  into  the  stereotyped 
life  of  the  great  populations  placed  under  English  rule,  and  are  pre- 
paring them  to  be  in  every  way  better  men  and  better  citizens  of  the 
great  Empire  in  which  they  dwell."  6  Lord  Napier,  once  Governor 
of  Madras,  went  further.  "It  is  not  easy  to  overrate  the  value  in 
this  vast  Empire,"  he  said,  "  of  a  class  of  Englishmen  of  pious  lives 
and  disinterested  labours  living  and  moving  in  the  most  forsaken 
places,  walking  between  the  Government  and  the  people,  with  de- 

1  Picturesque  India,  p.  168. 

*  Official  Revised  Report  on  Educational  Missions  in  India,  presented  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  1890,  p.  92. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  12. 

4Seeley,  Expansion  of  England,  pp.  322f;  Julian  Hawthorne,  "  England  in 
India,"  Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  October,  1897. 

6  Speer,  Missions  and  Politics  in  Asia,  pp.  103- 1 1.2. 

6  Report  on  The  Moral  and  Material  Progress  and  Condition  of  India,  ordered 
by  the  House  of  Commons  to  be  printed  April  28,  1873,  p.  129. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  681 

votion  to  both,  the  friends  of  right,  the  adversaries  of  wrong,  im- 
partial spectators  of  good  and  evil." 

But  there  is  more  than  this  to  be  said.  Western  government  of 
the  East  and  Western  trade  have  never  been  popular.  They  have 
not  bridged  and  cannot  bridge  the  racial  chasm.  The  spirit  in  which 
they  are  carried  on  usually  tends  to  widen  that  chasm.  The  only 
way  in  which  it  can  be  bridged,  as  Professor  Seeley  suggested,  is  by 
religious  sympathy.  The  mission  enterprise  is  of  the  deepest  phil- 
osophic necessity  to  the  Western  propaganda.  The  Eastern  Question 
will  always  be  a  religious  question.  To  attempt  to  solve  it  with 
purely  secular  agencies  has  always  failed,  and  will  always  fail.  The 
civilizing  of  Asia,  the  temper  of  mind  to  accept  civilization,  the 
transformation  of  character,  which  alone  is  civilization,  patience 
with  what  is  repellent  in  Western  contact  until  its  better  aspects  are 
seen,  the  success  of  the  purely  secular  work  of  our  propaganda  in 
Asia— are  all  dependent  upon  the  enterprise  of  missions,  its  success 
in  slowly  establishing  a  religious  community,  and  thus  conquering  in 
the  one  possible  way  the  antipathies  of  the  centuries  and  bridging 
the  chasms  that  divide  men.1 

Even  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  admits  the  principle  for  which  I  am  contend- 
ing here  : 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  admit  that  in  many  instances  the  successful  propaga- 
tion of  a  superior  or  stronger  creed  has  been  favourable  to  political  amalgamation, 
nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  intense  fusing  power  that  belongs  to  a  common 
religion.  In  our  day,  the  decree  of  divorce  between  religion  and  politics  has 
been  made  absolute  by  the  judgment  of  every  statesman,  above  all  for  Christian 
rulers  in  non-Christian  countries ;  nevertheless,  the  religion  of  the  Spaniards  was  a 
part  of  their  policy  in  the  New  World,  and  this  of  course  is  still  true  in  regard  to 
Mohammedans  everywhere.  There  have  been  many  periods,  and  there  are  still 
many  countries,  in  which  an  army  composed  of  different  religious  sects  could 
hardly  hold  together.  And  it  is  certain  that  for  ages  identity  of  religious  belief 
has  been,  and  still  is  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  one  of  the  strongest  guarantees 
of  combined  action  on  the  battle-field.  It  has  often  shown  itself  far  more  effective, 
as  a  bond  of  union,  than  territorial  patriotism  ;  it  has  even  surmounted  tribal  or 
racial  antipathies  ;  and  its  advantages  as  a  palliative  of  foreign  ascendancy  have 
been  indisputable.  The  attitude  of  religious  neutrality  is  now  manifestly  and  in- 
contestably  incumbent  on  all  civilized  rulerships  over  an  alien  people  ;  it  is  a 
principle  that  is  just,  right  and  politic  ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  its  influence  that 

•Stock,  History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  Vol.  I,  p.  206,  Vol.  II, 
p.  400. 


682  Missions  and  Modern  History 

makes  for  that  kind  of  assimilation  which  broadens  the  base  of  dominion.  Re- 
ligion and  intermarriage  are  the  bonds  that  amalgamate  or  isolate  social  groups 
all  the  world  over,  especially  in  Asia,  and  their  influence  for  or  against  political 
consolidation  has  lost  very  little  of  its  efficiency  anywhere."  l 

Even  if  men  have  no  interest  in  the  higher  views  of  the  relation- 
ship of  West  and  East  and  do  not  conceive  of  Christian  civilization 
as  a  trust  held  for  the  world,  but  merely  wish  to  find  in  Asia  and 
Africa  and  South  America  markets  for  their  goods,  irrespective  of  the 
character  and  advancement  of  the  people  with  whom  they  trade,  they 
must  still  recognize  the  indispensable  service  of  the  missionary  and 
accept  his  movement  as  essential  to  the  best  interests  of  theirs.  He 
opens  markets  for  them.  "  Wherever  his  errand  is,  and  wherever  his 
teaching  is  felt,  there  the  way  is  opened  for  a  widening  commerce. 
Intensity  of  conviction  carries  him  where  the  commercial  agent  gladly 
follows,  but  would  not  lead."  2  "  If  considered  from  a  commercial 
point  of  view,"  wrote  the  Hon.  T.  R.  Jernegan  when  Consul-General 
of  the  United  States  at  Shanghai,  "  missionary  work  has  accomplished 
advantages  to  trade  which  the  present  awakening  of  China  will  soon 
evidence  to  be  of  great  practical  value.  China  can  no  longer  sleep. 
The  agencies  of  a  civilization  whose  progress  knows  no  receding  ebb, 
are  busily  at  work  within  the  Empire.  Civil  engineers  are  now  map- 
ping the  vast  territory  of  China  and  tracing  lines  for  contemplated 
railways,  aided  by  the  information  furnished  by  the  missionary,  and 
closely  following  his  tracks  across  plains  and"  mountains,  and  by  these 
tracks,  the  business  man  pilots  his  ventures  to  the  far  interior  marts. 
In  the  absence  of  the  information  furnished  by  the  missionary  many 
of  the  trade  marts  of  China  would  be  still  unfamiliar  to  the  merchant 
and  demands  for  his  merchandise  confined  to  much  narrower  limits. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  the  ensign  of  commerce  follows  close 
in  the  wake  of  the  banner  of  the  Cross,  and  he  who  would  strike 
down  the  hand  that  carries  the  latter,  injures  the  interest  of  the 
former."  3    The  evidence  that  could  be  produced  to  show  the  value  of 

1  Lyall,  Asiatic  Studies,  Second  Series,  Ch.  VII,  pp.  384,  385. 

2  Storrs,  Addresses  on  Foreign  Missions,  pp.  38f. ;  See  Article  by  the  Hon. 
Charles  Denby  in  The  Independent,  December  12,  1901,  "The  Influence  of  the 
Mission  Work  on  Commerce  "  ;  London  Conference  Report,  Vol.  I,  pp.  m-137  '< 
lading,  Expansion  of  the  Christian  Life,??.  139- I 49;  Ecumenical  Conference 
Report,  Vol.  I,  pp.  325-346;  Ely  Volume,  Ch.  XIX. 

a  Quoted  in  the  Japan  Evangelist,  Vol.  IV,  No.  6,  March,  1897,  P-  l6S5  See 
also  letter  of  Major   F.  E.  Younghusband  in  London  Times,  November  19, 1901, 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  683 

missions  to  commerce  is  simply  unlimited,  ranging  from  testimony 
like  Consul-General  Jernegan's  and  Minister  Denby's  regarding  a  great 
and  settled  nation  to  testimony  regarding  the  work  of  missions  in  the 
sheer  creation  of  peaceful  markets  among  degraded  or  dying  peoples, 
such  as  Chief  Justice  Sir  Charles  St.  Julian  of  Fiji  offered  regarding 
the  work  of  the  Wesleyan  mission  there,  "  If  the  work  done  by  that 
society  had  only  been  to  cause  the  natives  to  cast  off  bad  prac- 
tices and  customs,  it  would  have  been  a  very  gratifying  result,  but 
the  mission  had  built  up  a  kingdom."  *  By  establishing  peace,  and 
creating,  through  peace  and  enlightenment,  new  wants  and  new  abil- 
ity to  buy ;  by  introducing  the  manufactures  of  civilization,  by  dis- 
arming prejudice  and  destroying  superstition,  by  conciliating  those  to 
whom  the  advantages  of  foreign  trade  enjoyed  by  others  are  disad- 
vantage and  loss,  by  establishing  on  solid  foundations  legitimate  hu- 
man intercourse,  the  missionaries  have  rendered  to  trade  the  greatest 
possible  services.1  It  is  little  to  contend  that  in  return  trade  should 
recognize  at  least  the  right  of  missions  to  a  place  in  the  movement 
of  civilization  upon  the  world.  Indeed,  it  was  from  religious  mo- 
tives that  early  trade  sprang,  and  however  mistaken  the  method,  it 
pursued  for  years  the  sound  principle  of  regarding  itself  as  a  Chris- 
tian representation  of  the  desire  for  friendly  intercourse  and  as  a 
means  of  the  extension  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  would  be  well  if 
once  more,  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  mission  might  be  the  spirit  of 
the  mission  of  trade;  if  men  who  went  out  to  traffic,  went  in  the 
mind  of  Edward  VI,  King  of  England,  as  expressed  in  his  letter  to 
the  two  navigators,  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby  and  Richard  Chancellor, 
starting  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  to  Cathay.  The  letter  sets  forth 
the  disposition  to  cultivate  the  love  and  friendship  of  mankind  im- 
planted in  man  by  the  Almighty  and  the  consequent  duty  to  maintain 
and  augment  this  desire,  and  "to  show  good  affection  to  those  who 
come  from  farre  countries.  .  .  .  And  if  it  be  right  and 
equity  to  show  such  humanitie  to  all  men,  doubtlesse  the  same  might 
chiefly  to  be  shown  to  merchants  who,  wandering  about  the  world, 
search  both   the   land   and  sea,  to  carry  such  good  and  profitable 

and  Dr.  Brown,  Report  on  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Laos  and  Sia?n, 
pp.  1-5. 

1  Liggins,  Great  Value  and  Success  of  Foreign  Missions,  p.  71. 

*  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  pp.  loyf.,  citing  the  case  of 
Hawaii. 


684  Missions  and  Modern  History- 

things  as  are  found  in  these  countries  to  remote  regions  and  king- 
doms, and  again  to  bring  from  the  same  such  things  as  they  find 
there  commodious  for  their  own  countries.  .  .  .  For  the  God 
of  heaven  and  earth,  greatly  providing  for  mankind,  would  not  that 
things  should  be  found  in  one  region,  to  the  end  that  all  should 
have  need  of  another ;  that  by  this  means,  friendship  might  be 
established  among  all  men  and  every  one  seek  to  gratifye  all." 
This  is  the  spirit  in  which  the  commercial  movement  should  pro- 
ceed. It  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  great  outward  impulse  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  the  missionary  welcomes  it  as  an  ally.  To  be  sure  it  has  been 
repeatedly  abused  and  ten  times  the  allegations  and  complaints  made 
against  missions,  including  all  those  made  against  missions,  might  be 
made  truthfully  against  trade.  But  even  acknowledging  and  lament- 
ing this,  its  influence  has  been  powerful  for  good.  It  ought  to  be  as 
fair-minded  in  judging  and  assisting  missions  as  missions  are  in  rec- 
ognizing its  place  and  striving  to  make  its  influence  helpful  and 
righteous. 

We  have  already  considered  the  charge  against  missions  that  their 
influence  is  sub\^rsive  and  revolutionary.1  But  when  a  plea  is  made 
such  as  I  have  just  suggested  for  a  recognition  of  the  movement  as  a 
legitimate  part  of  the  outgoing  of  civilization,  as  legitimate  as  trade, 
that  charge  is  sure  to  be  revived  and  it  is  said  that  missions  make  too 
much  trouble,  are  indeed  the  utterly  unnecessary  occasion  of  war  and 
armed  interference.  It  might  be  enough  to  ask  in  reply,  When  and 
where?  Modern  missions  are  more  than  a  century  old  and  have 
never  caused  one  war.  It  is  true  that  the  Christian  nations  are  the 
warlike  nations.  "During  this  century  (the  nineteenth),"  says  an 
American  paper,  "  the  Christian  nations  have  done  most  of  the  fight- 
ing in  the  world  and  the  worst  of  it  has  been  among  themselves,"  2 
but  none  of  it  among  themselves  or  with  other  nations  has  been  caused 
by  Christianity,  much  less  by  the  missionary  propaganda.  Even  if  it 
had  been  otherwise,  it  would  not  have  followed  that  the  wars  were 
wrong  and  unjustifiable.3     War  after  war  has  been  fought  for  trade 

1  See  Faber,  Paul  the  Apostle  in  Europe,  a  Guide  to  our  Mission  Work  in 
Asia,  pp.  23-27. 

*  Saturday  Evening  Post,  December  23,  1899,  p.  544. 

3Cf.  Editorial  Nav  York  Times,  "Modernizing  Asia,"  February  4,  1902,  and 
The  Independent,  June  28,  1900,  Editorial,  "  '  The  Army  follows  the  Missionary,' 
Yes";  pp.  1 5 7 1  f .  ;  Ibid.,  September  12,  1901,  pp.  2147^,  Article  by  Dr.  Anient, 
"'The  Chinese  Settlement'  once  more." 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  685 

or  national  honour  or  ambition,  but  not  one  smallest  conflict  has  been 
caused  by  missions  save  where  missions  have  been  used  to  further 
national  greed.  The  most  powerful  of  all  the  agencies  of  the  West 
has  wrought  for  more  than  a  century,  destroying  and  creating,  and 
has  done  its  work  in  peace,  save  where  political  influences  have 
crossed  it  and  confused  it,  and  has  gained  steadily  the  good-will  and 
affection  of  the  people  among  whom  its  work  has  been  done.  Indeed, 
instead  of  causing  war,  it  has  again  and  again  prevented  it.  Mein- 
icke,  speaking  of  New  Zealand,  says :  "  The  incessant  wars  and 
massacres,  the  strangling  of  slaves,  the  eating  of  human  flesh  have 
been  abolished  through  the  missionaries  alone,  so  far  as  their  influence 
reaches ;  and  even  were  their  method  essentially  wrong  and  their  un- 
dertaking a  failure,  they  must  be  honoured  for  this."  And  Dr. 
Warneck  in  quoting  this  testimony,  adds  that  of  an  English  Consul, 
Mr.  Prichard,  who  says,  "Among  the  many  happy  results  which  the 
introduction  of  the  gospel  has  produced  in  these  islands  (Polynesia) 
no  one  is  more  remarkable  than  the  suppression  of  the  constant  state 
of  war."  '  If  it  be  said  that  missions  at  least  are  responsible  for  the 
Tai-ping  Rebellion,  it  might  be  replied  that  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, the  English  Deists  might  be  held  responsible  for  the 
French  Revolution,  and  George  Washington  for  the  rebellion  of  Boli- 
var and  the  revolt  of  South  America  from  Spain ;  and  those  who 
fall  back  upon  the  Tai-ping  Rebellion  as  the  only  war  for  which  they 
can  hold  missions  responsible,  abandon  the  objection  to  missions  on 
this  ground  by  practically  admitting  that  they  cannot  cite  one  instance 
where  missions  involved  a  Western  Government  in  war  with  an  East- 
ern people. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  missionary  movement  as  a  movement  en- 
titled to  recognition  side  by  side  with  trade  as  a  legitimate  part  of 
the  outgoing  of  Christendom  upon  the  world.  But  surely,  this  is 
speaking  under  too  much  restraint.  It  is  Christianity  and  Christian 
missions  which  in  this  matter  have  indisputable  and  absolute  right  of 
precedence.  An4d  the  facts  of  the  world  make  missions  the  supreme 
movement  and  leave  questionable  all  others.  Some  even  hold  that 
"whether  apart  from  missions,  the  West  is  doing  the  East  more  good 

1  Warneck,  Missions  and  Culture,  pp.  i6of;  Liggins,  Great  Value  and 
Success  of  Foreign  Missions,  p.  55,  giving  A.  R»  Wallace's  testimony  re  the 
Celibes. 


686  Missions  and  Modern  History 

than  harm  is  at  least  an  open  question."  ]  This  is  a  just  statement 
and  yet  the  whole  Western  movement,  with  all  its  evils,  must  surely  be 
believed,  in  the  will  of  God,  to  be  working  for  the  good  of  the  world. 
But  that  part  of  it  which  has  first  place,  which  is  accomplishing 
most  good  and  least  evil,  and  lessening  the  evil  and  increasing  the 
good  of  every  other  part,  is  the  missionary  enterprise.  As  the  best 
of  our  Western  possessions,  Christianity,  is  the  first  thing  we  are 
bound  to  give  to  the  world.  And  whether  judged  by  its  historic 
fruits  or  the  principles  on  which  it  rests,  the  movement  which  aims 
to  give  it  to  the  world  is  entitled  to  the  most  honourable  place  in  the 
outmoving  of  Christendom  upon  the  less  privileged  world.2  Well 
would  it  be  for  the  world,  both  East  and  West,  if  Christian  missions 
were  allowed  to  do  their  work  first  and  unimpeded.3  That  they  are 
not  allowed  to  do  so,  Lord  Salisbury  acknowledges,  constitutes  an 
obligation  on  the  part  of  Governments,  to  do  what  can  be  done  to 
offset  the  evils  which  prevent  them  from  doing  their  work  unhindered. 
Speaking  at  the  Bi-Centenary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel,  June  19,  1900,  he  said  :  "In  the  Church  of  old  times, 
great  evangelists  went  forth  to  this  work,  exposed  themselves  to  fear- 
ful dangers  and  suffered  all  the  terrors  that  the  world  could  inflict  in 
support  of  the  doctrines  which  they  preached  and  the  morality 
which  they  practiced.  There  was  no  doubt  at  the  same  time,  a 
corrupt  society  calling  itself  by  their  name.  But  .  .  .  the 
means  of  communication  were  not  active  and  were  not  as  they  are 
now,  and  things  might  go  on  without  attracting  the  attention  of  those 
who  listened  to  the  teaching  of  the  earlier  teachers  or  diminishing  the 
value  of  their  work.  Now  things  are  considerably  altered,  and  that 
very  increase  in  the  means  of  communication,  that  very  augmenta- 
tion of  the  power  of  opinion  to  affect  opinion  and  of  man  to  affect 
man  by  the  mere  conquests  we  have  achieved  in  the  material 
domain  ;  those  very  conquests,  while  undoubtedly  they  are  .  .  . 
an  invitation  from  Providence  to  take  advantage  of  the  means  of 
spreading  the  gospel,  are  also  a  means  by  which  the  lives  of  many 

1  Clarke,  A  Study  of  Christian  Missions,  p.  243  ;  Foster,  American  Diplomacy 
in  the  Orient,  p.  397. 

5  Foster,  The  Civilization  of  China,  p.  7  ;  Storrs,  Addresses  on  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, p.  40 ;  Ecumenical  Conference  Report,  Vol.  I,  p.  359. 

3  Montgomery,  Foreign  Missions,  p.  132;  Young,  Success  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions, p.  225. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  687 

and  the  acts  of  many,  which  are  not  wholly  consistent  with  the  ideal 
which  is  preached  in  the  pulpit  or  read  in  the  Holy  Book,  are 
brought  home  to  the  vast  nations  which  we  seek  to  address.  That  is 
one  of  the  great  difficulties  with  which  we  have  to  contend,  and  that 
is  the  reason  why  this  society  and  all  missionary  societies  appeal  with 
undoubted  force  and  with  the  right  to  have  their  appeal  considered 
— that  as  our  civilization  in  its  measure  tends  to  hamper  missionary 
efforts,  so  in  its  nobler  manifestations  and  its  more  powerful  efforts 
that  civilization,  represented  by  our  assistance,  shall  push  forward  to 
its  ultimate  victory,  the  cause  to  which  you  are  devoted."  ' 

But  just  as  such  an  expectation  on  the  part  of  missions  of  such 
political  sympathy  and  support  would  be,  the  movement  asks  no  such 
aggressive  assistance.  If  regarded  as  entitled  to  the  same  rights  and 
privileges  as  other  branches  of  the  propaganda  of  Christendom,  it  is 
content.2  It  might  ask  more,  and  I  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  Chris- 
tian States  to  do  more.  It  is  not  their  duty  to  carry  on  a  religious 
propaganda,  but  it  is  their  duty  to  adhere  to  their  own  convictions 
and  to  appear  to  the  world  as  Christian  States,  evading  no  declaration 
of  principle  and  asserting  boldly  their  recognition  of  Christian  faith 
and  their  obligation  to  it.  What  the  Queen  said  in  her  proclamation 
to  India  after  the  Mutiny  should  be  as  boldly  said  in  principle  by  all 
the  States  of  Christendom  in  dealing  with  the  East  and  their  conduct 
should  be  made  to  conform  to  such  a  profession.  No  Christian  Gov- 
ernment is  justified  in  saying  what  was  said  in  the  Treaty  which  we 
made  with  Tripoli  in  1796,  "  The  Government  of  the  United  States 
of  America  is  not  in  any  sense  founded  on  the  Christian  religion,  as 
it  has  in  itself  no  character  of  enmity  against  the  laws,  religion  or 
tranquillity  of  Mussulmans.  ...  No  pretext  arising  from  re- 
ligious opinions  shall  ever  produce  an  interruption  of  the  harmony 
existing  between  the  two  countries."  It  may  be  believed  that  such 
a  position  as  that  would  not  be  taken  to-day. 

Indeed,  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  has  unequivocally  as- 
serted the  contrary  view.  In  the  decision  in  the  Alien  Labour  Con- 
tract  Law   case,    February    29,    1892,   the   Court,   through   Justice 

1  Quoted  in  Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  July,  1900,  pp.  547-549. 

2  Missions  at  Ho?ne  and  Abroad,  p.  459  ;  Ecumenical  Conference  Report,  Vol. 
I,  p.  341 ;  Report  Eighth  Conference  of  Foreign  Mission  Boards  of  United  States 
and  Canada,  1 901,  pp.  89-96;  Colquhoun,  China  in  Transformation,  p.  164; 
Reinsch,  World  Politics,  p.  156. 


688  Missions  and  Modern  History 

Brewer,  declared  that  the  law  in  question  could  not  be  operative  in 
the  case  under  consideration — that  of  a  minister  brought  over  to 
New  York,  on  the  broad  ground  that  "  no  purpose  of  action  against 
religion  can  be  imputed  to  any  legislation,  state  or  national,  because 
this  is  a  religious  people."  What  religion  was  meant  the  Court  de- 
clared with  equal  plainness.  It  quoted  decisions  to  the  effect  that 
Christianity  is  and  always  has  been  a  part  of  the  common  law  of 
States  like  Pennsylvania,  that  the  Government  is  not  neutral  as  to- 
wards all  religions,  because  we  are  a  Christian  people,  and  the 
morality  of  the  country  is  deeply  engrafted  upon  Christianity,  and 
not  upon  the  doctrines  or  worship  of  impostors  like  Mohammed  and 
the  Grand  Lama.  Passing  to  the  view  of  American  life  as  expressed 
in  the  laws,  its  business,  its  customs  and  its  society,  the  decision  finds 
"  everywhere  a  clear  recognition  of  the  same  truth."  "  Among  other 
matters,"  it  says,  "  note  the  following  :  The  form  of  oath  universally 
prevailing  concluding  with  an  appeal  to  the  Almighty ;  the  custom  of 
opening  sessions  of  all  deliberative  bodies  and  most  conventions 
with  prayer  ;  the  prefatory  words  of  all  wills,  '  In  the  name  of  God. 
Amen ' ;  the  laws  respecting  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  with 
the  general  cessation  of  all  secular  business  and  the  closing  of  courts, 
legislatures  and  other  similar  assemblies  on  that  day  ;  the  churches 
and  church  organizations  which  abound  in  every  city,  town  and 
hamlet ;  the  multitude  of  charitable  organizations  existing  everywhere 
under  Christian  auspices ;  the  gigantic  missionary  associations  with 
general  support  and  aiming  to  establish  Christian  missions  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe.  These  and  many  other  matters  which  might 
be  noticed  add  a  volume  of  unofficial  declarations  to  the  mass  of 
organic  utterances  that  this  is  a  Christian  nation."  '  There  is  no 
higher  judicial  authority  in  America  to  which  to  appeal.  If  the 
judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  to  be  accepted,  this  land  must  be 
regarded  as  a  Christian  nation,  and  we  are  justified  in  dealing  with 
its  duties  towards  the  world  on  this  basis. 

The  nation  rests  on  the  Christian  religion  and  it  and  the  rest  of 
Christendom  in  dealing  with  the  East  should  not  fear  to  confess  its 
faith.  It  is  in  a  real  sense  treasonable  for  it  by  treaty  to  deny  what 
another  part  of  the  Western  movement  upon  Asia  is  endeavouring  to 
establish.  And  the  individual  agents  of  the  Christian  States  in  Asia 
1  143  United  States  Supreme  Court  Reports,  pp.  457ff- 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  689 

should  represent  them  as  Christian  States.  It  cannot  be  asked  that 
the  diplomatic  service  should  be  made  an  adjunct  of  the  missionary- 
movement,  but  the  best  interest  of  the  world  and  of  the  outgoing  of 
Christendom  require  that  the  men  who  represent  the  West  in  the 
East  in  trade  or  politics,  should  be  men  who  believe  in  the  higher 
duty  of  West  to  East  and  who  do  not  betray  the  civilization  they  go 
out  to  represent.1  The  appointment  of  drunkards  and  debauchees 
to  represent  America  in  Asia  and  South  America  is  an  insult  to  the 
nation  and  treason  to  its  duty  in  the  world.  Sir  Donald  McLeod's 
conviction  regarding  England  and  India  applies  to  all  dealings  of  the 
West  with  the  outside  world:  "The  prayers  and  exertions  of  a 
Christian  people  are  required  to  press  on  the  Government  the  ne- 
cessity of  doing  everything  a  Government  legitimately  can  do  to  pro- 
mote the  progress  of  Christianity  and  a  sound  morality  throughout 
India,  whether  they  can  take  a  direct  part  in  spreading  the  former  or 
not.  Above  all,  they  should  be  urged  to  send  out  Christian  rulers, 
men  who  are  faithful  and  are  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel."  2  Town- 
send  Harris  was  the  type  of  man  required  and  what  he  accomplished 
for  his  country  and  the  world  in  Japan  is  illustrative  of  what  the  in- 
tercourse of  West  and  East  might  have  been  if  all  our  representatives 
had  been  like  him. 3 

The  missionary  movement  does  not  wish  to  be  entangled  with 
forces  which  too  often  act  in  divergence  from  Christian  principle.  It 
seeks  only  as  free  an  opportunity  as  possible  to  do  its  own  work  of 
planting  in  individual  character  and  in  family  life  the  new  life  of  the 
Gospel.  The  rest,  it  knows,  will  follow  in  due  time.  It  does  desire 
that  every  other  agency  at  work  in  transforming  the  backward  nations 
should  work  harmoniously  with  it  and  should  recognize  the  principle 
of  an  unselfish  service  as  the  law  of  all  intercourse  of  nations  and 
races,  and  of  men. i  It  knows  that  it  possesses  not  only,  as  Lord 
Salisbury  expressed  it,  "  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  one  of  the 
most  sacred  levers  that  ever  acted  upon  opinion,"  5  but  the  most 

1  Johnston,  A  Century  of  Christian  Progress,  Ch.  VII. 

9  Morris,  Anglo-Indian  Worthies,  p.  136  ;  See  New  York  Sun,  August  7,  1902, 
Mr.  Fortescue's  testimony  re  American  officers. 

3  Griffis,  Townsend  Harris,  pp.  223f;  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  hi  the 
Orient,  pp.  177^ 

*  Japan-American  Commercial  "Journal,  March,  1900,  p.  33. 

5  Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  July,  1900,  p.  549. 


690  Missions  and  Modern  History 

powerful  and  most  sacred.  What  Professor  Seeley  describes  as  "the 
most  characteristic  work"  of  the  British  Empire  and  a  work  suf- 
ficiently revolutionary  surely,  namely,  "  the  introduction  in  the  midst 
of  Brahmanism  of  European  views  of  the  Universe,"1  the  work  of 
missions  is  doing  everywhere  with  a  power  immeasurably  greater 
than  the  power  of  politics  or  trade,  and  is  doing  also  so  much  else 
that  this  particular  work  becomes  incidental  and  secondary. 

And  as  to  the  final  issue  the  missionary  movement  entertains  no 
doubt.  It  listens  to  the  most  intelligent  statements  of  the  hopeless- 
ness of  its  task  of  achieving  for  civilization  the  unity  of  the  world. 
"  I  shall  be  told,"  says  Mr.  Townsend,  "  that  the  spread  of  Chris-, 
tianity,  which  is  inevitable,  will  extinguish,  probably  very  speedily, 
the  separateness  of  Asia  and  with  it  all  its  consequences.  Will  it  ? 
Let  us  look  at  that  belief  a  little  closely  and  without  preconceived 
ideas.  I  do  not  find  in  history  that  a  common  Christianity  in  any 
degree  removes  hatreds  of  race  or  nationality  or  prevents  continued 
outbreaks  of  bitter  hostilities,  but  we  may  let  that  pass.  What  is  the 
real  ground  for  believing  that  Asia  will  accept  Christianity  ?  Cer- 
tainly there  is  no  historic  ground,  no  Asiatic  nation  of  any  importance 
can  be  said  to  have  accepted  it  in  the  last  1,700  years.  The  Asiatic 
race  which  knows  the  creed  best  and  has  had  the  strongest  reasons  for 
accepting  it,  reasons  which  prevailed  with  the  Germans  and  the  Slavs 
when  pagan,  still  rejects  it  with  a  certain  silent  but  very  perceptible 
scorn.  What  has  changed  in  Asia  that  the  future  should  be  so  unlike 
the  past  ?  There  are  more  teachers  no  doubt,  but  there  are  not  one- 
tenth  or  one  one-hundredth  so  many  as  have  endeavoured  through 
the  ages  in  vain  to  convert  the  Jew.  It  is  said  that  Christ  gave  an 
order  to  His  disciples  to  teach  all  nations :  that  is  true  and  I  for  one 
believe  the  order  to  be  binding  ;  that  the  Christian  Church  which 
sends  out  no  missionaries  is  a  dead  Church  ;  but  where  in  the  record 
has  Christ  promised  to  those  missionaries  universal  success  ?  Is  it 
not  at  least  possible  that  the  missionaries  carry  in  their  hands  the 
offer  of  eternal  life,  which  a  few  accept  while  the  rest  '  perish  ever- 
lastingly ' ;  that  is,  die  like  the  flowers  or  the  dumb  animals  of  God  ? 
This  much,  at  least,  is  certain,  that  for  1,800  years,  it  has  been 
no  part  of  the  policy  of  heaven, — I  write  with  reverence  though  I 
use  non-Christian  terminology — to  convert  Asiatics  en  masse,  and 
1  Expansion  of  England,  p.  2S4. 


Missions  and  the  World-Movement  691 

there  is  no  proof  that  this  want  of  divine  assistance  to  the  teachers 
may  not  continue  for  an  equal  period  in  the  future.  The  truth  is 
that  the  Asiatics,  like  the  Jews,  dislike  Christianity,  see  in  it  an  ideal 
they  do  not  love,  a  promise  that  they  do  not  desire,  and  a  pulver- 
izing: force  which  must  shatter  their  civilizations.  Eternal  conscious- 
ness  !  That  to  the  majority  of  Asiatics  is  not  a  promise  but  a  threat. 
The  wish  to  be  rid  of  consciousness,  either  by  annihilation  or  by 
absorption  in  the  Divine  is  the  strongest  impulse  they  can  feel. 
Though  Asiatic  in  origin,  Christianity  is  the  least  Asiatic  of  the 
creeds.  Its  acceptance  would  revolutionize  the  position  of  woman, 
which  is  the  same  throughout  Asia ;  would  profoundly  modify  all 
social  life  and  would  place  by  the  side  of  the  spiritual  dogma,  '  thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,'  which  every  Asiatic  accepts  in  theory, 
the  far-reaching  ethical  dogma,  '  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,' 
which  he  regards  as  an  intolerable  burden.  I  doubt  too  whether  the 
beauty  of  the  character  of  Christ  appeals  to  the  brown  races  as  it 
does  to  the  white,  whether  they  feel  His  self-suppression  for  others  as 
Clovis  and  his  warriors  felt  it,  as  something  altogether  more  beautiful 
and  ideal  than  their  own  range  of  conception.  However  that  may 
be,  it  is  clear  that  while  the  Asiatic  can  be  wooed  to  a  change  of 
creed,  as  witness  the  success  of  both  Buddhism  and  Mohammedan- 
ism, whose  teachings  are  radically  opposed  to  each  other,  they  have 
not  been  and  are  not  equally  moved  to  embrace  Christianity.  If 
they  ever  take  to  it,  it  will  be  from  some  internal  and  self-generated 
movement  of  thought  and  not  from  any  influence  of  Europe."  1 

What  is  true  in  this  view,  does  not  need  to  be  answered.  And 
there  is  much  truth  in  it.  There  is  also  error  and  to  that  error,  I 
hope  that  the  evidence  presented  here,  of  life  in  Asia,  of  movements 
of  thought  which  may  be  called  self-generated  and  are  the  more 
hopeful  if  they  are  so,  but  which  are  yet  the  product  of  the  religious 
influence  of  the  West,  will  be  a  sufficient  reply.  And  all  these  great 
upheavings,  some  so  sad  and  ruinous,  some  so  hopeful  and  prophetic, 
and  some  so  rich  in  completed  achievement  and  realization  are  but 
the  first  stirrings  of  the  new  life.  Looking  upon  them  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  philosophic  historian,  the  friend  of  missions  and  of 
man  listens  unmoved  to  every  prediction  of  defeat,  to  every  assertion 
of  the  inaccessibility  of  the  Asiatic  spirit  to  the  influence  of  Chris- 

1  Asia  and  Europe,  pp.  34-36. 


692  Missions  and  Modern  History 

tianity  and  the  civilization  which  is  its  child,  and  answers  in  the 
words  of  the  geographer  Meinicke  :  "  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  deny 
the  extraordinary  importance  of  the  missionary  efforts  of  our  time ; 
they  are  yet  really  in  their  infancy ;  yet  it  is  certain  that  they  will 
wholly  transform  the  nature  and  the  relations  of  the  un-Christian 
peoples  and  will  thereby  produce  one  of  the  most  magnificent  and 
most  colossal  revolutions  that  human  history  contains."  ' 

1  Quoted  by  Warneck,  Missions  and  Culture,  p.  153. 


Index 


Abbas  Effendi,  138,  159,  i64ff. 

Abbott,  on  Roman  Catholic  influence 
in  Mexico,  189. 

Abdul  Hamid,  see  Sultan  of  Turkey. 

Abdul  Medjid,  454,  466. 

Abdullah,  Khalifa,  272ff. 

Abgar,  444. 

Aborigines  Protection  Society  and  the 
Congo  Free  State,  249f. 

Abul  Kazim,  125. 

Abyssinia,  241. 

Acona,  Bishop  of,  364. 

Acre,  134.  164. 

Adi  Samaj,  306. 

Adrianople,  145. 

Adrianople,  the  Peace  of,  602. 

Afghanistan,  6o2f. 

Africa,  The  Development  of,  229-286. 
Prolonged  ignorance  of,  229; 
growing  knowledge  of,  229L ; 
Livingstone,  23of. ;  Krapf,  232 ; 
missionaries  and  explorations,  232; 
beginning  of  Christian  missions, 
232;  Extent,  232f. ;  Mackay  on 
right  mission  policy  in  Africa, 
233f. ;  industrial  missions,  237 ; 
good  effects,  237  ;  Uganda,  238f. ; 
relation  of  missions  to  partition 
of  Africa,  239^,  246f. ;  the  Eu- 
ropean invasion,  24of. ;  and  di- 
vision of  the  continent,  242-245  ; 
Livingstonia  Mission  and  its  po- 
litical services,  246;  Madagascar, 
247f. ;  Congo  Free  State,  248- 
25 1;  slave  trade,  Christian, 
25if. ;  Moslem,  252ff. ;  commer- 
cial motive  of  partition,  256 ; 
Chartered  Companies,  256ff. ;  evil 
effects  of  bad  trade  and  traders, 
259f. ;  missions  and  trade,  259 ; 
liquor  trade,  26off.,  265 ;  Mo- 
hammedanism in  Africa,  265-278 ; 
the  Mahdi  Movement,  270-278; 
missionary  duty  of  Government, 
274ff. ;  attitude  of  British  Gov- 
ernment to  missions  in  Sudan, 
276ff. ;    Boer  War,  278-283;    na- 


tive races  question,  284ff. ;  colo- 
nization of  American  Negro  in 
Africa  futile,  283-285  ;  Liberia, 
285  ;  white  men  needed,  286. 

African  Lakes  Corporation,  25  7  f. 

Agha  Mohammed  Ali,  132,  158. 

Agnihotri,  Pundit  Shiv  Narayan,  319^, 
327,  342-356. 

Ahmad  Ullah,  89. 

Ahmed  Agha,  442f. 

Ahmed  of  Aksa,  Sheikh,  123,  I25ff. 

Aigun  Treaty,  613. 

Aintab,  477,  483. 

Akbar,  484. 

Akhissar,  462. 

Akoulina,  the  story  of,  627-631. 

Aleppo,  480. 

Alexander,  George,  on  Romanism  in 
Brazil,  222f. 

Alexander  I,  640. 

Algiers,  240. 

Ali,  125,  i4of. 

Alid,  Sheikh,  123. 

Aligarh  College,  112. 

Allen,    H.   N.,  on   the   Mutang,  372- 

374- 
Allyn,  H.  S.,  on  Ultra-Montanism  in 

Brazil,  204. 

American  Colonization  Society,  283. 

American  diplomacy,  535 ;  debt  to 
missionaries,  672-674. 

Amherst,  Lord,  672. 

Amur,  the,  6o4f.,  613. 

Anatolia,  see  Armenia. 

Anderson,  F.,  quoted,  58if. 

Ansairiyeh,  159. 

Anusthanic  Brahmas,  318. 

Anzer,  Bishop,  and  the  Boxer  Upris- 
ing, 581L,  589. 

Arabs  and  slavery,  2526".,  255. 

Aranda,  Count  of,  suggestion  to  Charles 
III,  191. 

Aras,  the,  602. 

Argentine,  189,  193;  independence 
of,  196,  197 ;  religious  liberty, 
203;  moral  and  political  laxity, 
204. 


693 


694 


Index 


Armenia,     4431". ;     present    condition, 

450,  464ft".,  479. 
Armenians,  the,  443-447. 
Armenians  and    the   Russian   persecu- 
tions of  the  Gregorian  Church,  650— 
652. 
Armenian      Massacres,      The,      441- 
485. 

Preceding    massacres    in   Turkey, 
441-483;  to  have  been  expected, 
443  ;  the  Armenian  people,  443f. ; 
the  Gregorian  Church,  444f. ;  the 
Protestant    missions,  445 ;    Arme- 
nian character,  445f. ;  the  Kurds, 
4471". ;  the  Turks,  448;  the  Turk- 
ish   Government,    448-453 ;    the 
Turkish  problem,  453f. ;  origin  of 
the    Armenian     question,    4546°. ; 
relation    of    England    to,    455ft". » 
Cyprus      Convention,     455-458; 
persecution    of    Armenians,   459 ; 
outbreak  of  the  massacres,  459?. ; 
Sassoun,  46of. ;    other  massacres, 
461-463;    extent,  462-464;  guilt 
of  Ottoman  Government,  464 ;  de- 
liberately planned    and    prepared 
for,    466ft". ;     relation    of   Moham- 
medanisn  to,  467f. ;  responsibility 
of  Great  Britain  for,  468f. ;  Tur- 
key's  excuse,   469f. ;    truth   in  it, 
47of. ;     Armenian     revolutionists, 
47of. ;  relation  of  missionaries  to, 
471-477;    consolatory  consequen- 
ces   of  the   massacres,   477-479 ; 
possibility    of    repetition,   479ft". ; 
America's     duty,     48if. ;      Great 
Britain's  shame,  482,  484;    Mor- 
ley's  and  Gladstone's  views,  483f. ; 
Gladstone's  culpability,  483f. ;  the 
situation,  484^ 
Armenian  Revolutionists,  47°f. 
Arnold,  William,  107 f. 
Arrow  War,  43,  565,  673. 
Arthur,  President,  205. 
Arya  Samaj,  292;  founder,  320;   and 
the  Vedas,  320ft. ;  creed,  320ft".  ;  and 
caste,    323f. ;    inconsistency,    324f.  ; 
immorality,  325  ;    secret  of  success, 
325 ;    extent,   326f. ;    real   character, 
331  ;  paper  on,  by  H.  D.  Griswold, 

335-342. 
Ashmore,  on  Tai-pings,  14. 
Assassins,  122,  133,  159. 
Astrakhan,  602. 
Atlantic  Cable,  539. 


Augustin,  Governor-General  of  Philip 

pines,  proclamation  of,  449f. 
Avesta,  [21. 

Ayacucho,  battle  of,  197. 
Azov,  602. 

Bak,  see  Mirza  Ah  Mohammed. 

Babism,  or  Behaism,  121-182. 

Founder,  1 22- 125  ;  doctrinal  bases 
in  Shiahism,  125-127;  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Bab,  I27f. ;  spread  of 
the  new  faith,  I28f. ;  martyrdom, 
I2g(.;  development  of  claims, 
131 ;  death  and  character  of  the 
Bab,  I32f. ;  schism,  134;  Beha's 
advanced  claims,  1 34- 139  ;  pan- 
theism, 139-143;  worthy  elements, 
I43f. ;  hopeful  signs,  144  ;  but  evil 
also,  I45f. ;  relation  to  Moham- 
medanism, 146ft". ;  better  attitude 
towards  women,  148ft.  ;  attack  on 
Koran  and  ecclesiastics,  147, 
151ft'.;  progressiveness,  153;  how 
far  political?  I28f,  153;  religious 
toleration,  154ft.;  relations  to  Chris- 
tianity, in  preparing  for  its  spread, 
I56f. ;  at  beginning,  I58f;  in  re- 
pressing it,  159ft.;  allegorizing, 
l6lf. ;  allowance  of  dissimulation 
of  their  faith,  i62f.  ;  resemblance 
to  Brahmo  Samaj,  163;  Beha  suc- 
ceeded by  Abbas  Effendi,  164; 
American  converts,  i64f. ;  Mr. 
Phelps'  view  of  Behaism,  i66ff. 

Bacon,  on  causes  of  sedition,  8if. 

Badasht  Conference,  133. 

Bagdad,  134. 

Bahadur  of  Bareilly,  Khan,  85,  115. 

Ball,  Dyer,  on  the  character  of  the 
Triad  Society,  17. 

Bambana,  269. 

Barnett,  S.  A.,  on  "  Christianity  in  the 
East,"  415. 

Barrios,  President  of  Guatemala,  call- 
ing for  missionaries,  219. 

Barth,  on  Brahmo  Samaj,  302. 

Basil,  Captain,  560. 

Beaulieu,  Leroy,  on  Japanese  civili- 
zation, 399 ;  on  the  Chinese  literati, 
560;  on  the  possibility  of  racial 
transformation,  66 if. 

Bechuanaland,  262. 

Beder  Khan  Beg,  442. 

Beebe,  R.  C,  on  opium  in  China,  528. 

Behaim,  Martin,  globe  of,  229. 


Index 


695 


BehaUllah,  123,  134,  i^ff.,  I44f.(  164. 

Belgium  in  Africa,  248)?. 

Belgrano,  197. 

Bengal,  reform  in,  293;  condition  at 
beginning,  294. 

Bentinck,  Lord  William,  75,  79,  99, 
297. 

Berlin  Conference,  248,  258. 

Berlin,  Treaty  of,  449,  455,  602. 

Bettran,  Luis,  189. 

Bey  an,  126,  I28f.,  13 1. 

Bha^avata  Parana,  293. 

Bible  in  public  schools  in  India,  Law- 
rence's views,  108-110;  Smeaton's 
views,  1  iof. 

Bible  in  South  America,  2l5f. 

Big  Knife  Society,  581. 

Birejek,  462,  468. 

Bishop,  Mrs.,  on  Tong  Hak  Insur- 
rection, 379 ;  on  Christianity  in 
Japan,  432. 

Blackford,  on  Romanism  in  Brazil, 
221. 

Blanco,  General,  501. 

Blavatsky,  Madam,  329. 

Blyden,  on  the  evil  influence  of  profli- 
gate traders  in  Africa,  260 ;  on  the 
superiority  of  Mohammedanism  to 
Christianity  for  Africa,  266. 

Blythswood,  233,  237. 

Boer  War,  278-283 ;  character  of 
Boers,  279 ;  effect  on  missions, 
279ff. ;  native  races  question,  28off. 

Bogota,  Bible  Society  in,  215. 

Boil,  Bernardo,  186. 

Bokhara,  603. 

Boles,  John,  or  Jean  de  Beaulieu,  2i4f. 

Bolivar,  I92f.,  I96ff,  199,  217. 

Bolivia,  laws  against  freedom  of  wor- 
ship in,  202f. 

Bornu,  269. 

Bose,  on  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  298 ;  on 
reason  for  spread  of  Brahmoism,  331 ; 
on  value  of  it,  333^ 

Boston  Transcript,  473. 

Boulger,  on  the  character  of  Hung 
Siu-tsuen,  17. 

Boxer  Uprising,  The,  381-594. 

Relation  to  Tong  Hak  Insurrec- 
tion, 381 ;  American  interests  in 
it,  539f. ;  charged  to  the  mission- 
aries, 540f. ;  origin  of  the  Boxer  So- 
ciety, 54 if. ;  comparison  with  Tai- 
pings,  542f.  ;  attitude  to  foreigners 
and  Manchus,  542f,  545  ;  religious 


character,  543-547 ;  course  of, 
547L  ;  suppression,  548  ;  respon- 
sibility of  Chinese  Government, 
548—551  ;  not  due  to  religious 
fanaticism,  55 if. ;  due  to  anti- 
foreign  feeling,  553^. ;  attitude  of 
Chinese  Government  towards  mis- 
sions, 554-557 ;  treaty  rights  of 
missionaries,  554ff. ;  causes  of  anti- 
foreign  feeling,  558-575 ;  dis- 
position of  the  Chinese  people, 
558ff.;  antagonism  of  officials,  56of.; 
and  of  the  central  Government, 
562 ;  opium  a  cause  of  anti-foreign 
feeling,  562-565 ;  Arrow  War, 
565 ;  Western  bad  faith,  565! ; 
influence  of  Western  trade,  566- 
569  ;  relation  of  missions  to  anti- 
foreign  feeling,  570-575 ;  what 
precipitated  this  ill-feeling  in  the 
Boxer  Uprising?  576-584,  (1) 
collapse  of  reform  movement,  576— 
578;  (2)  economic  conditions  in 
Shan-tung,  578L ;  (3)  political 
status  of  Roman  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries, 579ff ;  (4)  German 
seizure  of  Chinese  soil,  581-583  ; 
the  Chih-li  campaign  of  1900, 
584;  political  rights  of  mission- 
aries, 585-587  ;  missionaries  and 
native  lawsuits,  5738".,  588 ;  course 
of  Roman  Catholic  missionaries, 
587^  ;  missionaries  and  ancestor 
worship,  589^;  the  future,  591L ; 
the  new  Japanese  propaganda, 
592f. 

Boyaca,  battle  of,  196. 

Brahma  Dhar?na,  302. 

Brahma  Sabha,  298f. 

Brahmic  covenant,  30of. 

Brahmo  Samaj,  origin,  298ff. ;  covenant, 
300f.  ;  basis  of  authority,  30 if.; 
principles,  302 ;  intuition,  304 ; 
schism,  3o6f. ;  new  developments, 
307^  ;  reforms  and  excesses,  309^  ; 
another  schism,  310;  wild  course 
of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  31  off. ; 
"The  New  Dispensation,"  3i2f. 

Brazil,  independence  of,  198;  religious 
liberty  in,  203 ;  character  and  in- 
fluence of  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
204,  22off. ;  Huguenots,  2i4f. 

Brent,  Bishop,  on  religious  position  of 
United  States  Government  represent- 
atives in  Philippines,  522f. 


696 


Index 


Brewer,  Justice,  decision  of  supreme 
court  as  to  the  United  States  and 
Christianity,  688. 

Bridgman,  E.  C,  67 2f. 

Brinkley,  Captain,  on  reality  of  change 
in  Japanese  civilization,  414. 

British  Blue  Books  on  Armenian 
Massacres,  462ft'. ;  480. 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  in 
Philippines,  510  ;  in  Russia,  638. 

British  East  Africa  Company  and 
Uganda,  246. 

British  South  Africa  Company,  256. 

British  Weekly,  on  native  races  ques- 
tion in  South  Africa,  280ft". 

Brooks,  Phillips,  on  Brahmo  Samaj, 
312ft". 

Brooks,  Sydney,  547k 

Brown,  Arthur  J.,  interview  with 
Roman  Catholic  Bishop  in  Manila, 

513. 
Brown,   H.  W.,  on    Bible    circulation 

and  Lancasterian  Schools  in  South 

America,  215ft. 
Browne,  E.  G.,  visit  to  Beha  at  Acre, 

139 ;  on   assassination  in   Behaism, 

I45f. ;  on  Kurratu'1-Ayn,  149. 
Brussels    Conference,    242,    246,    248, 

252,  255,  264f. 
Buddhism,  relation  of  Tong  Haks  to, 

362 ;    in    Korea,    372f. ;     effect    of 

transformation  of  Japan  upon,  404- 

406,     421  ;     in    Boxer    movement, 

543ff. ;  in  China,  552. 
Buenos  Ayres,   manifesto  issued  from 

in  1817,  i89f.,  I92f. 
Buffer  states,  futility  of,  6i5f. 
Buha,  269. 

Bulgarian  Atrocities,  442,  455f. 
Bulgarian  Horrors  and  the  Question  of 

the  East,  448. 
Burnby,  Ride  to  Khiva,  603. 
Burton,  Sir  Richard,  on  African  liquor 

traffic,  260. 
Bushido,  426. 
Bushire,  125. 
Bustamente,  500. 
Buxton,  Fowell,  257. 

CjESAREA,  4631. 

Caird,  on   religious  sanctions  of  evil, 

290. 
Calcutta,  Bishop  of,  on   gulf  between 

East  and  West,  1 15. 
Camilo,  Polavieja,  501. 


Candlin,  George  T.,  on  the  "  mythol- 
ogy "     of     the      Boxer     movement, 
544f. 
Canning,  Lord,  78,  81,  83,  ic»4f. 
Canning,  Stratford,  466. 
Cape  Colony,  237,  241,  279. 
Capen,  Samuel   B.,  on  American  mis- 
sionaries and  Armenian  relief  funds, 
476. 
Carabobo,  battle  of,  196. 
Caracas,  council  at,  194. 
Carlyle,  seance  with  his  spirit  at  Ke- 

shub  Chunder  Sen's,  312. 
Carrera,  197. 
Caste,  289^,  294. 
Castells,  F.  de  P.,  510. 
Catherine  the  Great,  608. 
Caucasus,  602. 

Cawnpore,  massacre  of,  73,  78. 
Chaitanya,  293. 
Chalmers,  James,  on  civilization   and 

missions,  675^ 
Chalmers,  on  Tai-ping  attitude  towards 

missionaries,  51. 
Chancellor,  Richard,  683. 
Chang    Chih-tung,    553,    559ft".,    5O3, 

576,  590. 
Chappelle,  Archbishop,  517. 

Charles  III,  191. 

Child,  Theodore,  on  political  immoral- 
ity in  South  America,  224. 

Chili,  189;  independence  of,  193, 
196  ;  religious  liberty,  203  ;  powers 
of  Church  in,  203. 

China,  effects  of  war  with  Japan  upon, 
38of. ;  in  Korea,  388f. ;  better  side 
of  Roman  Catholic  missions  in, 
49if.,  579f.,  587^. ;  Emperor  of, 
576f. ;  and  Christian  missions,  554- 
557.  57°'  575  J  Government,  548- 
551,  560-562,  see  Boxer  Upris- 
ing. 

China- Japan  War,  378;  due  to  Tong 
Haks,  380;  effect  on  China,  38of., 
576;  on  Japan,  382  ;  on  Korea,  383- 
386,  387  ft". ;  on  Korea's  relations  to 
China,  388f. 

Chinese  Government,  16,  548—551, 
56of.,  562. 

Chinese  in  the  Philippines,  527^ 

Chinese  Progress,  577. 

Chinese,  religious  tolerance  of,  552f. ; 
anti-foreign  feeling  of,  558-575. 

Chios,  massacre  in,  441. 

Cho,  Queen  of  Korea,  363. 


Index 


697 


Choi  Chei  Ou,  origination  of  Tong 
Haks  by,  3611". ;  execution  as  a  Ro- 
man Catholic,  365 ;  posthumous 
honours  claimed  for,  365 ;  effects  of 
his  work,  378f.,  382. 

ChoiSikYung,  371,375,  377- 

Chrimian,  652. 

Chuen  Bong  Jun,  377. 

Chung    Wang,    55;    remark    to    Dr. 

Griffith  John,  57. 
Church       Missionary      Society      and 

Uganda,  238f.,  246. 
Church,  Roman  Catholic,  and  religious 

liberty,  20 if. 
Chwang-tze,  on  virtue  among  thieves, 

424. 
Civilization,    evil    effects   of  Western, 

477- 
Civilization,  influence  of  missions  on, 

237,  Ch.  xiii ;  duty  to  police  the  world, 

665  ;  and  to  reform  the  world,  666f., 

675ft".,  685  ;  duty  to  tropics,  664f. 

Clarendon,  Earl  of,  on  religious  toler- 
ation in  Turkey,  454. 

Clark,  E.  W.,  on  a  Christian's  duty 
to  spread  his  faith,  430. 

Clark,  H.  Martyn.on  Arya  Samaj,  323. 

Clarke,  Robert,  on  effects  of  British 
educational  policy  in  India,  679. 

Clive,  74. 

Coate,  73. 

Cochrane,  Lord,  196. 

Coligny,  Admiral,  214. 

Colombia,  independence  of,  193,  196 ; 
concordat  with  Pope,  209-214. 

Colonization  of  the  American  negro  in 
Africa,  2836°. 

Colquhoun,  Archibald,  on  Chinese 
aversion  to  foreigners,  558. 

Comity  in  the  Philippines,  missionary, 

531- 
Confucianism,    553,    558;    relation   of 

Tong  Haks  to,  362 ;  relation  of  Tai- 
pings  to,  29;  in  Korea,  372f.,  388f. ; 
in  Japan,  420;  and  Boxer  move- 
ment, 543. 

Congo,  230,  233,  241,  248. 

Congo  Free  State,  242f.,  248-251  ;  and 
missions,  249f. 

Constantinople,  Western  civilization  in, 
477  ;  and  Russia,  482,  611. 

Constituent  Congress  of  United  Prov- 
inces of  South  America,  manifesto 
of,  i89f.,  I92f. 

Consuls,  powers  of,  in  Asia,  469. 


Contemporary  Review,  597  ft- 

Copsa,  Bishop  of,  363k 

Corbett,  Hunter,  on  Tai-pings  and 
Christianity,  59. 

Cortes,  i85f. 

Costaki,  Pasha,  470. 

Courland,  602. 

Cox,  S.  S.,  and  the  Sultan,  450f.,  458, 
467. 

Cranborne,  Lord,  on  Russia  and  Eng- 
land in  Persia,  642f. 

Cranford,  chaplain  of  East  India  Com- 
pany, 1  oof. 

Crimean  War,  the,  13,  454,  466,  607, 
611. 

Crimea,  the,  602. 

Cromer,  Lord,  attitude  to  missions  in 
Egypt  and  the  Sudan,  27  6f. 

Cross  of  Christ,  in  Bolo-land,  517k 

Crowther,  Bishop,  263,  284. 

Cuba,  insurrection,  493 ;  effect  of  Span- 
ish-American War  upon,  493f. 

Culbertson,  Matthew,  journal  of,  37. 

Currie,  Sir  Philip,  464,  470;  on  the 
American  missionaries  in  Turkey, 
476. 

Curtis,  George  William,  on  different 
types  of  American  statesmanship,  664. 

Curtis,  W.  E.,  opinion  of,  regarding 
conditions  in  Ecuador,  205,  221. 

Curzon,  Lord,  675  ;  advice  to  Moslem 
students,  112;  on  a  Japanese  ethical 
eclecticism,  423. 

Cushing,  Caleb,  letter  to,  from  Dr. 
Martin,  37-42;  on  missionaries  and 
diplomacy,  67  2f. 

Cyprus  Convention,  455ft".,  45^»  4^9f- 

Czar,  proclamation  of  religious  tolera- 
tion, 649^ 

Daily  Telegraph,  238. 

Dalhousie,  Earl  of,  77,  80. 

Damascus,  massacre  in,  in  i860,  442. 

Dar  Ferteet,  270. 

Darwin,  Charles,  on  the  Terra  del 
Fuego  mission,  2i8f. 

Davis,  Sir  John,  23. 

Dayanand  Saraswati,  320,  335ft. 

Dean,  John  M.,  517L 

Debendranath  Tagore,  299-303 ;  an- 
cestry and  preparation,  299^  ;  issues 
covenant,  30of. ;  and  Christianity, 
301;  and  Vedas,  30 if. ;  Brahma 
Dharma,  302 ;  character,  303 ; 
schism  in  Samaj,  306. 


698 


Index 


Defensa     Catolica,    against     religious 

toleration,  220. 
De  Forrest,  J.  H.,  on  Christianity  in 

Japan,  408,  436. 
Delhi,  fall  and  recapture  of,  in  Indian 

mutiny,  78. 
de  Mandeville,  John,  229. 
Denby,    Charles,    683;    on    causes   of 

Chinese  disturbances,  573. 
Despujols,  50of. 
Deva  Samaj,  3i8f.,  342-356. 
de  Vogue,  Count,  story  of,  illustrating 

religious  character  of  Russian  peo- 
ple, 627-631. 
de  Witte,  Russian  Minister  of  Finance, 

6i3f. 
de  Worter,  Jobst,  229. 
Diarbekr,  462. 
Dietooubiisti,  the,  634. 
Dillon,  E.  J.,  on  the  decay  of  Spain,  459^ 
Disraeli,  442,  456. 
Diversions  of  a  Diplomat,  450f. 
Dodge,  Arthur  P.,  on  Babism,  165. 
Dom  Pedro  I,  of  Brazil,  198. 
Dorshieff,  on  Russia  in  Turkestan,  602. 
Dostoievski,  on  the  genius  of  Russia, 

598. 
Doughty,   J.    W.,   on    Christianity   in 

Japan,  413. 
Douglass,  on  Governor  Yeh  of  Canton, 

15  ;  on  the  character  of  the  Tai-ping 

rule  at  Nanking,  36. 
Doukhobortsi,  the,  633^,  637. 
Doushilschiki,  the,  634. 
Doyle,    Father,   on    Roman    Catholic 

missions,  491. 
Drummond,  Henry,  on  African  Lakes 

Company,  25  8f. 
Druses,  159. 
Duff,  on  Indian  Mutiny,  79,  82f.,  86ff., 

87ff.,     101,     105,     115;     and    Ram 

Mohun  Roy,  297. 
Dufferin,  Lord,  on  religious  instruction 

in  India,  680. 
Dutch  in  South  America  in  seventeenth 

century,  215. 
Dwight,  H.  O.,  on  Islam  and  morality, 

266ft". ;    on    Western    civilization    in 

Constantinople,  477. 

East  India  Company,  origin,  73;  de- 
velopment, 73L  ;  attitude  to  missions, 
75f.,  99ff. ;  character,  76f.,  87 ; 
abolition,  77  ;  danger  of  such  cor- 
porations, 256. 


Eastern  Question,  inevitably  a  religious 

question,  667f.,  68 if. 
Easton,  P.  Z.,  on  Babism,  I2iff.,  128, 

I33»  H8. 
Ecuador,  condition  in  1888,  205,  221 ; 

reformation,  2C>5f. ;  religious  liberty, 

2o6ff. 
Edessa,  444. 

Edkins,  J.,  visit  to  Hung  Jin,  53L 
Educational     institutions    in    Turkey, 

missionary,  473^ 
Edwardes,  Sir  Herbert,  108 ;  on  lessons 

of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  117;  attitude 

to  missions  in  the  Punjab,  278. 
Edward  VI,  letter  to  two  navigators  in 

sixteenth  century,  683. 
Edward  VII,  on  missionaries  in  India, 

675. 
Elgin,  Lord,  64,  397,  565. 
Ellenborough,    Earl     of,     76,      ic^f., 

541. 
Emir  of  Nupe,  to  Bishop  Crowther,  on 

liquor  trade  in  Africa,  263. 
Empress  Dowager,  of  China,  45,  544, 

55of->  559,  573.  576,  578. 

Episode  of  the  Bab,  see  Babism. 

Esthonia,  602. 

Etchmiadzin,  445. 

"  Evangelical  Union "  in  the  Philip- 
pines, 531 ;  appeal  from,  532f. 

"  Ever  Victorious  Army,"  60. 

Everett,  Edward,  on  colonization  of 
American  negro  in  Africa,  283k ;  re- 
lation of  United  States  Government 
to  missionaries,  666. 

Ezelis,  134,  145. 

Famagusta,  134. 

"  Faribault  Plan,"  in  the  Philippines, 

524- 
Fearon,  James  S.,  on  present  conditions 

in  China,  591. 
Ferdinand  VII,  I93f.,  198. 
Ferik  Pasha,  443,  460. 
Finland,  602,  653. 
Fish,  Secretary  of  State,  on  services  of 

S.  Wells  Williams,  674. 
Foreman,  John,  on  Church  rule  in  the 

Philippines,  500. 
Forman,  C.  W.,  Sr.,  67S. 
Forman,  Henry,  on  the  Arya  Samaj, 

325f- 
Fortescue,  Roland,  on  the  religious  in- 
fluence  of  America   in    the    Philip- 
pines, 520. 


Index 


699 


Foster,  John  W.,  on  the  moral  grounds 
for  America's  retention  of  the  Philip- 
pines, 493 ;  on  America  an  Asiatic 
power,  535 ;  on  the  absence  of  re- 
ligious fanaticism  in  China,  552;  on 
American  duty  in  the  Orient,  667  ; 
on  services  of  missionaries  in  diplo- 
macy, 674. 

Fouchard,  General,  of  Hayti,  225. 

"Fourth  Support,"  127. 

France :  in  Africa,  240,  242,  256 ;  and 
Madagascar,  247L ;  and  the  Arme- 
nian massacres,  450;  and  Russia, 
611  ;  and  Siam,  663. 

Frazer's  Magazine,  260. 

Frederick  Shamm,  the  peace  of,  602. 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  on  Turkey,  Constan- 
tinople and  Islam,  453,  482,  484. 

French,  Bishop,  678. 

Friars  in  the  Philippines,  501,  504, 
509, 515ft 

Fuad  Pasha,  442. 

Fukuzawa,  406,  4o8f.,  420,  430f. 

Fullahs,  252,  270. 

Fuller,  A.,  477. 

Fung  Yun-san,  22,  24. 

Galitzin,  Prince,  640. 

Galozan,  460. 

Ganges,  289. 

Gardiner,  Captain  Allen,  218. 

General  Sherman,  The,  360. 

Germany,  in  Africa,  2\\L,  256;  and 
the  Armenian  Massacres,  455-458, 
468f.,  481-484  ;  and  Russia,  607^ 

Gessi  Pasha,  271. 

Gilmour,  James,  on  beneficence  of  Rus- 
sian influence  among  the  Mongols, 
618. 

Gladstone,  and  Gordon  and  the  Mahdi 
movement,  273ft  >  foreign  policy, 
274 ;  on  Bulgarian  atrocities  and 
Turkey,  428f. ;  on  Cyprus  Conven- 
tion, 45  6f. ;  and  the  Armenian  Mas- 
sacres, 4831".;  on  the  Opium  War,  563. 

Gnostics,  159. 

Goluchowski,  Count,  480. 

Goodfellow,  Dr.  William,  and  Argen- 
tina schools,  220. 

"  Goodwill  Fraternity,"  304. 

Gordon,  "  Chinese,"  in  China,  34,  42, 
57f.,  6if.,  63;  Huxley's  opinion  of, 
58;  and  the  Mahdi  movement,  271, 
27  3f.,  27  7f. ;  and  missions  in  Africa, 
276ft  ;  on  character  of  Boers,  279. 


Gordon,  M.  L.,  on  civilization  in  Japan, 
414;  on  the  Christian  source  of  the 
new  Japanese  civilization,  426. 

Gorst,  on  European  intercourse  with 
China,  565. 

Goschen,  Sir  William,  and  the  Arme- 
nian question,  458. 

Govind,  293. 

Grant,  Asahel,  instructions  to,  as  mis- 
sionary to  the  Nestorians,  445. 

Grant,  President,  666. 

Granville,  Earl,  on  inseparability  of 
missionaries   from   other   foreigners, 

"Greased  cartridges,"  81,  84. 

Great  Britain,  in  Africa,  240ft,  256; 
and  the  Armenian  Massacres,  455- 
458,  468f.,  481-484;  and  Russia, 
6071". 

"Greater  Occupation,"  126,  131. 

Greek  Church,  relation  to  Russian 
State,  6i9f. ;  character  and  influence, 
621-627;  mission  to  Persia,  643ft. » 
to  Japan,  645-648. 

Green,  D.  D.,  on  Tai-pings  at  Ningpo, 

43- 
Greene,  D.  C,  on  new  conceptions  of 

personality  in  Japan,  400 ;  on  Con- 
fucianism in  Japan,  420;  on  influ- 
ence of  Christianity  upon  Japanese 
thought,  435. 

Greene,  F.  D.,  on  character  of  the 
Kurds,  447 ;  on  Kurdish  outrages 
upon  Armenians,  459. 

Gregorian  Church,  444f. 

Gregory,  the  Illuminator,  444. 

Grey,  Governor,  testimony  to  missions 
in  Cape  Colony,  237. 

Griswold,  H.  D.,  papers,  on  Arya 
Samaj,  335-342 ;  on  Pundit  Agnihotri 
and  the  Deva  Samaj,  342-356. 

Gros,  Baron,  64. 

Guatemala,  199. 

Gulam  Ahmed,  of  Qadiani,  327. 

Gulick,  S.  L.,  on  the  Christian  charac- 
ter of  the  new  civilization  of  Japan, 
426. 

Hafiz,  151,  303. 

Haines,  on  relation  of  Sufiism  to  Chris- 
tianity, 159. 

Haji  Mollah  Ismail,  129. 

Haji  Sayid  Kazim,  I26f. 

Hake,  Story  of  Chinese  Gordon, 
quoted,  15,  37,  57,  63. 


700 


Index 


Hakem  B'amr  Ullah,  159. 

Hakemites,  159. 

Hakkas,  19,  25. 

Hall,   Captain    Basil,  on  character  of 

Spanish  rule  in  South  America,  191. 
Hallward,  Vice  Consul,  468. 
Hamberg,  relation  to  Hung  Jin,  23. 
Hapgood,  Isabel   F.,  on  the  character 

of  the  Russian  Church,  622. 
Happer,  A.  P.,  on  Tai-ping  errors,  5of. 
Harris,  Rendell,  on  the  religious  effects 

of  Armenian  relief,  47 7 f. 
Harris,  Tovvnsend,  689. 
Hasjilar,  463. 
Hastings,  Warren,  74. 
Hatti  Humayoun,  466. 
Hatti  Sherif,  454. 
Havelock,  78,  81. 
Hawkes,  J.  W.,  on  failure  of  Babism 

to  convert  Christians  and  Jews,  157. 
Hawkins,  256. 
Hay,  John,  535. 

Heard,  The  Russian  Church  and  Rus- 
sian   Dissent,   quoted    6i9f.,   626f., 

633ft".,  636f.,  649. 
Hearst,  Mrs.,  conversion  to  Behaism, 

164. 
"  Heart  of  a  Continent,  The"  49. 
Hepburn,  J.  C,  431. 
Hepworth,    Dr.,    on    the    missionaries 

and    the    Armenian    revolutionists, 

472. 
Herat,  603^ 
Hidalgo,  189,  I97f. 
"  Higher  Hinduism,"  290,  295,  332f. 
Hinduism,  Reform  Movement  in,  289- 

356- 
Immorality  in,  289^ ;  Swami 
Vivekananda,  29of.  ;  Saktism, 
291  ;  falsehood  in,  29 if.  ;  Vaish- 
nava  reformers,  292  ;  Kabir,  292  ; 
Nanak,  293 ;  Govind  and  the 
Sikhs,  293  ;  Chaitanya,  293 ;  Ram 
Mohun  Roy,  293-299 ;  evils  he 
faced,  294 ;  attack  on  idolatry, 
295 ;  reforms  advocated,  296 ; 
caste,  296f. ;  relation  to  mission- 
aries and  Christianity,  297^ ; 
character,  298 ;  Brahma  Sabha, 
298f. ;  Debendranath  Tagore,  299- 
303 ;  Brahmic  covenant,  3<x>f. ; 
Christianity  in  background,  301 ; 
basis  of  authority,  30 if. ;  Brahma 
Dharma,  302;  character  of  De- 
bendranath, 303  ;  Keshub    Chun- 


der  Sen,  303-315  ;  aggressiveness, 
304 ;  attack  on  idolatry,  caste,  etc., 
304^  ;  schism,  306 ;  Adi  Samaj, 
306 ;  new  development  of  Brahmo 
Samaj,  307^ ;  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen  and  Unitarianism,  3o8f. ; 
Kuch-Behar  marriage  controversy, 
310;  another  schism,  310;  erratic 
course  of  Keshub,  3ioff. ;  view  of 
Christ,  311;  "Motherhood  of 
God,"  311  ;  seances,  31  if. ;  "The 
New  Dispensation,"  3i2f. ;  Phil- 
lips Brooks  on  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen,  312-316;  death  of  Keshub, 
315;  Mozoomdar,  3 i6f. ;  con- 
troversy and  retreat,  3  I7f. ;  Sad- 
haran  Brahmo  Samaj,  318;  other 
movements,  319;  Deva  Samaj, 
3!9>  342,  35°;  Agnihotri,  319I., 
342-356;  Arva  Samaj,  320,  335- 
342;  and  Vedas,  32off.,  337-339; 
creed,  32off. ;  caste,  323^  ;  incon- 
sistency, 324f. ;  immorality,  325  ; 
success,  325 ;  extent  of  Reform 
Movement  in  Hinduism,  326f. ; 
significance,  327^ ;  nationalism, 
331  ;  "  Higher  Hinduism,"  332f. ; 
"  half-way  houses,"  333  ;  value  of 
movement,  333f. ;  the  final  result, 

334- 
Hofman,  Bishop,  on  his  political  status 

in  China,  581. 
Hohai,  Dr.,  on   missionaries   and  the 

Boxer  Uprising,  573ff.,  590. 
Holcomb,  Chester,  on  relation  of  Tai- 

pings  to  Triads,  17. 
Holliday,  Miss  Grettie  Y.,  on  Babism, 

143,  148,  155,  158. 
Holmes,  Dr.  G.  W.,  quoted  on  Babism, 

123,     I29f.,    i5of.,    156,    159,    162; 

paper  on   Babism  and   Christianity, 

169-174. 
Holmes,   the    Rev.    Mr.,   on   Tai-ping 

chiefs,  36f.,  50. 
Holmstrem,  Vlademir,  on  the  spirit  of 

the  Russian  advance  in  Asia,  605- 

610,  6l2f. 
Holy  Synod,  the,  6l9f. 
Hosayn,  Mollah,  127,  163. 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  651. 
Ilozumi,  Dr.,  on  the  Taiho  Code,  434. 
Hue,  558. 

Huguenots  in  Brazil,  2i4f. 
Humboldt,    on    character    of    Roman 
Catholic  influence  in  Mexico,  i88f. 


Index 


701 


Hung  Jin,  23,  24,  55f. 

Hung  Siu-tsuen,  origin,  19;  visions, 
19ft".  ;  begins  his  work,  21  ;  contact 
with  missionaries,  23f. ;  driven  on  to 
rebellion,  25ft". ;  career  and  end,  ^^, 
34;  character,  358".,  $g{. ;  mission, 
36;  compared  withJTsi-an,  551. 

Huntchagist  movement,  471,  479,  493. 

Hunter,  Sir  Wm.,  on  Islam  in  India, 
116;  on  absence  of  religious  teach- 
ing from  Government  schools  in 
India,  680. 

Hykes,  J.  R.,  on  the  Bible  in  the  Phil- 
ippines, 510. 

Ibrahim  Pasha,  454. 

Idolatry  in  Hinduism,  295^304^,  312. 

Ignatieff,  Count,  613. 

Ilorin,  269. 

Imams,  the  Shiah  doctrine  of  the,  125  ; 
Mahdi,  125,  127,  143;  Malik,  155; 
Shafa'i,  155;   Hanbal,  155. 

"  Imperialism,"  659,  663^ 

Imperial  Educational  Rescript  of  Japan, 
402,  421,  424. 

Independence  Club  in  Korea,  386. 

Independent,  on  Russia's  interna- 
tional relations,  61 1;  on  Russia's 
power  of  assimilation,  617  ;  on  Rus- 
sia in  Turkey,  640^ 

India,  Great  Britain's  religious  duty  to, 
76. 

Indian  Mirror,  332. 

Indian  Mutiny,  73-118. 

Its  roots  in  the  history  and  policies 
of  the  East   India   Company,  73, 
78;  brief  account,  78;  causes,  (1) 
disaffection  of  Sepoys,  79-81 ;  (2) 
"  greased  cartridges,"  81 ;  (3)  gen- 
eral distrust,   82f. ;  by  both   Mos- 
lems and   Hindus,   84f.  ;   (4)   un- 
popularity of  orderly  government, 
85-87;    (5)    political  inefficiency 
and  formalism,  87 ;    (6)  disaffec- 
tion in  Oudh,  89-91 ;  (7)  personal 
grievances,    89,    91  ;     relation    of 
Christianity  to  the  Mutiny,  92-1 1 1, 
113;    question    of    the    religious 
neutrality    of    the    Government, 
IOI-112;      lessons      and      conse- 
quences of  the   Mutiny,    112;  ex- 
posure   of    India's    need,     U4f. ; 
permanence    of   British    influence 
upon   India,  660;  popularity  and 
influence    of    missionaries,    67 if., 


68of. ;  effect  of  Government  edu- 
cational system  and  its  religious 
neutrality,  679^ 

Indians  in  South  America,  221. 

Industrial  missions  in  Africa,  237. 

Inouye,  Count,  383. 

Inouye  Tetsujiro,  and  Shintoism,  404  ; 
on  Jesus,  408 ;  on  a  new  eclectic  re- 
ligion for  Japan,  422. 

International  intervention,  665^ 

Isma'ilians,  125,  141,  159. 

Isopanishad,  297. 

Itagaki,  Count,  on  Japan's  national 
acceptance  of  Christianity,  407. 

Italy  in  Africa,  245,  256. 

Ito,  Count,  424. 

Iturbide,  197,  199. 

Ivan  IV,  602,  608. 

Iwakura  and  his  embassy,  379f.,  424. 

Iwasaki,  Baron,  on  the  moral  needs  of 
Japan,  419. 

Iyenaga,  Professor,  on  the  moral  an- 
achronism of  Confucianism,  420. 

Jaisohn,  Dr.,  on  official  rapacity  in 
Korea,  368. 

Jameson  Raid,  the,  256. 

Japan,  375-661. 

War    with    China   due    to    Tong 
Haks,  378;    feelings   of  Koreans 
towards,    375^,    379,    3831.;  sup- 
pression    of    Tong     Haks,     379; 
course   in    Korea   after  war  with 
China,    383-386;    effect    of    war 
with    China,    382^   403;    reform 
course  in  Korea,  383^  ;  agreements 
with  Russia  and  Korea,    384ft — 
The  Transformation  of,  395-438  ; 
rapidity  of  change  in,  395 f. ;  treaty 
with     Great    Britain,    395 f.  ;    his- 
torical development,  396f. ;  early 
Roman   Catholic     missions,    397 ; 
opening   of    country,   397  ;   char- 
acter    of     transformation,    397f. ; 
change  from  feudalism,  399;   cab- 
inets, 399  ;  social  and  civil  changes, 
400 ;     economic     change,    40of. ; 
growth  of  army  and  navy,  401  ; 
educational     development,     402 ; 
change    in    treaty    relations   with 
Western   nations,  402f. ;  effect  of 
transformation  upon  Buddhism  and 
Shintoism,  403-406;  upon  Chris- 
tianity, 406-413;  religious  liberty, 
408;  Dr.  Verbeck  on  special  in- 


702 


Index 


terest  in  Christianity,  187 2- 1888, 
409^  ;  appeal  of  Council  of  Mis- 
sions, 4iof. ;  Dr.  Verbeck  on  re- 
action, 4l2f. ;    the    transformation 
genuine,   414;    real    character   of 
the     people,    415-417 ;     need   of 
Christianity,     417-424;     due    to 
changed  political  and  social  con- 
ditions, 417^  ;  toeconomic  changes, 
418  ;  need  of  new  moral  sanctions, 
4iaf. ;    inadequacy   of    Buddhism 
and  Shintoism,  42iff. ;  utilitarian- 
ism, 421  ;  futile  ethical  eclecticism, 
422f.  ;  ethical  experiments,  422ff.  ; 
influence    of  Western    scepticism 
and   agnosticism,   424 ;    effect   of 
Western  political  examples,  424f. ; 
Christianity  indispensable,   425^  ; 
influence   of    missions,   426-435  ; 
political  influence  of  Christianity, 
427f. ;  influence  of  Dr.   Verbeck, 
428-430 ;    missions    a   mollifying 
force,  43of.  ;  influence  of  Dr.  Hep- 
burn, 431  ;  missionaries  and  extra- 
territoriality, 431  ;  democratic  and 
progressive  influence  of  missions, 
432C  ;  philanthropic  work  of  mis- 
sions, 433  ;  moral  influence,  433ft7.  ? 
unperceived  influence  upon  opin- 
ion,    435 ;     Christianity    needed, 
436ff. ;     excess     of     nationalism, 
435f. ;    imperfect    conceptions    of 
personality,   436;  defective    char- 
acter,   436f.  ;     the    duty    of    the 
Church  to,  437 f. ;   present  propa- 
ganda in  China,  592f. ;  Japan's  in- 
fluence in  behalf  of  religious  lib- 
erty and  progress,  639 ;   Russian 
Church    mission    in    Japan,    645- 
648  ;  Japan  illustrative  of  the  com- 
municability   of  civilization    from 
race  to  race,  66 if. 
Japan  Gazette,  on  Dr.  Hepburn  and  the 
influence  of  missionaries  in  Japan,  43 1 . 
Japan   Mail  quoted,  on  Japan's  mori- 
bund   religions,   406 ;    on  Dr.  Ver- 
beck's  services  to    Japan,  429 ;  on 
Dr.   Hepburn's  influence  on   bring- 
ing Japanese  and  foreigners  together, 
431  ;  on  woman's  missionary  work 
in  Japan,  434  ;  article  on  the  "  my- 
thology "  of  the    Boxer  movement, 
544 ;     on     missionaries     in    China, 
557  ;  on  the  conduct  of  foreign  troops 
in  the  Chih-li  campaign,  583^ 


Jernegan,  T.  R.,  on  missionaries  and 

commerce,  682. 
Jessup,   H.   H.,  paper  on  "  The  Bab- 

ites,"    giving    account    of    visit    to 

Abbas  Effendi,  174-180. 
Jesuits   in   Paraguay,    187  ;   in  Brazil, 

2I4f. 
Jiji  Shimpo,  406,  430. 
John,   Griffith,  42,  50;  visit  to  Hung 

Jin.  55f- 
John  V,  of  Portugal,  198. 
John  VI,  of  Portugal,  198. 
Johnson,    James,   on   liquor   traffic   in 

Africa,  262. 
Juggernath,  92,  102. 
Junkin,   William,  on  the  Tong   Haks, 

362,  37of. 

Kabir,  292. 

Kaifu  Nukariya,  405. 

Kalley,  Dr.  219. 

Kang  Yu-wei,  577^ 

Kano,  269. 

Kars,  Russian  suppression  of  Protestant 
missions  at,  639. 

Kashgar,  602. 

Kataoka  Kenkichi,  427. 

Kato,  Dr.,  on  the  immorality  of  West- 
ern international  politics,  424. 

Katsura,  on  Japan's  belief  in  religious 
freedom,  386 ;  on  Japanese  fidelity 
to  her  adopted  civilization,  639. 

Kazan,  602. 

Kei-ho,  Thomas  Kim,  363. 

Keizai  Zasski,  583. 

Kennan,  George,  on  size  of  Siberia, 
6o4f. 

Kerbela,  I25f. 

Kertch,  602. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  303-315. 

Education,  303 ;  aggressiveness, 
304 ;  exaltation  of  intuition  as 
basis  of  authority,  304  ;  attack  on 
moral  evils,  304^  ;  caste,  305f.  ; 
breaks  with  Debendranath,  306 ; 
"The  Church  of  the  Future," 
307  ;  system  of  doctrine,  307 f.  ; 
in  England,  3o8f.  ;  reforms,  309  ; 
excesses,  3096°. ;  inconsistency  in 
Kuch-Behar  marriage,  310;  an- 
other rupture,  310;  references  to 
Christ,  3iof.,  334  ;  "  The  Mother- 
hood of  God,"  311 ;  seances,  31  if. ; 
"The  New  Dispensation,"  31 2f. ; 
idolatry,  312;  Phillips  Brooks  on, 


Index 


703 


312-316;  end,  3i4f. ;  nationalism, 

33»- 

Khama,  chief  of  the  Bawangwato,  on 

liquor  in  Africa,  262ff. 

Khalifa,  270. 

Khartum,  271,  276. 

Kheiralla,  on  Behaism,  I38f.,  165, 
176. 

Khiva,  643. 

Khizan,  468. 

Khlysti,  the,  633^ 

Khomyakoff,  624. 

Kidd,  Benjamin,  on  the  government  of 
the  tropics  under  the  fiction  of  a 
temporary  sovereignty,  536 ;  on 
character  of  Western  politics  in 
China,  663 ;  on  the  duty  of  civi- 
lization to  the  tropics,  662ff. ;  on 
moral  debilitation  of  hot  climates, 
674. 

Kim,  360. 

Kinburn,  602. 

Kirghese,  Russian  influence  upon  the, 
618. 

Kirk,  Sir  John,  on  African  liquor  traffic, 
260. 

Kishinev  massacre,  653. 

Kitchener  and  missions  in  the  Sudan, 
276ff. 

Kochanoff,  Ivan,  on  Russian  religious 
statistics,  633. 

Kodakai,  the  decalogue  of  the,  422f. 

Kokumin  no  Tomo,  on  Dr.  Verbeck's 
services  to  Japan,  429. 

Ko-lao-hui,  59,  54 iff. 

Koran,  inviolability,  147 ;  finality, 
I47f. ;  on  woman  and  divorce,  148 ; 
knowledge  of  Christianity  in  Koran, 
158;  Bab's  rejection  of,  147,  150; 
and  liquor,  2658". 

Korea,  America's  relation  to,  359ff. ; 
first  treaties,  360;  Roman  Catholic 
missions  and  persecutions  in,  3636°. ; 
political  condition  at  time  of  Tong- 
Hak  outbreak,  3608". ;  judicial  rot- 
tenness, 368;  superstition  in,  371— 
375 ;  feeling  towards  Japan,  375^ ; 
summoning  China  for  assistance  in 
suppressing Tong  Haks,  378 ;  Japan's 
intervention,  3786°. ;  effects  of  Tong- 
Hak  Insurrection  upon,  3836°. ; 
Japan's  reforming  course  in,  383- 
386 ;  agreements  between  Russia 
and  Japan  over,  384^;  future  des- 
tiny, 386 ;  missionaries  in,  387,  389 ; 


missions  since  the  Tong  Hak  In- 
surrection, 39 if. ;  relation  to  China, 
388f. ;  missions  and  politics  in,  390f. 

Korean  Repository,  on  political  cor- 
ruption and  oppression  in  Korea, 
3666°. ;  article, "  Seven  months  among 
the  Tong  Haks,"  376. 

Kostomaroff,  on  Peter  the  Great,  597. 

Krapf,  illustrating  the  spirit  of  mission- 
ary exploration  in  Africa,  232;  on 
the  death  of  his  wife,  239 ;  on  the 
duty  of  undiscourageableness  in  mis- 
sions in  Africa,  286. 

Krishna,  291. 

Krishnagar  Christians  and  Indian 
Mutiny,  104. 

Kuka,  269. 

Kulyan  Singh,  testimony  as  to  religious 
motive  of  Indian  Mutiny,  94. 

Kumeyl  ibn  Ziyad,  i4of. 

Kung  Hung-ming,  559. 

Kuo  Sung-tao,  on  immorality  of  Eng- 
land in  Opium  War,  564. 

Kurds,  the,  447f. ;  and  Armenian 
Massacres,  4596°.,  465. 

Kurratu'1-Ayn,  128,  142,  1486°. 

Kushk  Post,  6o3f. 

Lagos,  240,  262. 

Lalla  Rookh,  122. 

Lallave,  Alonzo,  510. 

Lancasterian  schools,  2i5ff. 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  on  Great  Britain  in 
the  Persian  Gulf,  642f. 

Las  Casas,  i86f. 

La  Serna,  197. 

Latin  America,  The  Emancipation  of, 
185-224^ 
Conquest  of  Latin  America,  185  ; 
its  ecclesiastical  subjugation  to 
Rome,  i86ff. ;  consequences,  188; 
character  of  Spanish  rule,  iSgff. ; 
influence  of  French  and  American 
revolutions,  191L  ;  Napoleon's  re- 
lation to  independence  movement, 
192  ;  beginning  of  independence, 
193;  its  justification,  I94f. ;  his- 
tory of  the  movement,  1956°. ; 
Brazil,  198;  Mexico,  I98f. ;  the 
revolt  political,  not  religious,  199; 
but  soon  became  of  necessity  ec- 
clesiastical, 199ft". ;  attitude  of 
Roman  Catholic  Church  to  free- 
dom, 201 ;  growth  of  religious 
toleration,  202ft". ;  sudden  changes, 


7°4 


Index 


Ecuador,  2C5ff. ;  Columbia,  2o8ff. ; 
Protestant  missions,  beginnings, 
214L  ;  Thomson  and  the  Bible 
Societies  and  the  Lancasterian 
schools,  2l5ff.  ;  Allen  Gardiner, 
218;  other  missions,  219;  objec- 
tions to  their  presence,  intrusion, 
219X ;  territory  already  occupied, 
221  ;  character  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  221ft".;  Protes- 
tantism needed  to  purge  Roman- 
ism, 223;  Protestantism  not  mere 
proselytism,  224;  need  of  charac- 
ter, 224;  moral  aspect  of  Monroe 
Doctrine,  224f. 
Lavigerie,    Cardinal,    and    slavery    in 

Africa,  253. 
Lawrence,  Henry,  78,  83. 
Lawrence,  John,  78f.,  590 ;  on  relation 
of    Christianity    to    Indian    Mutiny, 
95,  io6f.  ;  on  religious  duty  of  Great 
Britain,    io7ff.,    110,   670;    reply  to 
Sir  H.  Edwardes,  108-110;  on  jus- 
tification of  Western  rule   in  Asia, 
667 ;  on  popularity  of  missionaries, 
671. 
Laws,  Robert,  233,  254. 
Lee,  Graham,  on  Chinese  boastfulness 

at  battle  of  Pyeng  Yang,  388. 
Legge,  opposed  to  European  sup- 
pression of  the  Tai-pings,  42  ;  letter 
to,  from  Kan  Wang,  5 1 ;  letter  to 
London  Missionary  Society  regard- 
ing Tai-pings,  66-70;  on  Chinese 
view  of  imposition  of  opium,  564. 
Lenington,    R.    F.,    on    Romanism    in 

Brazil.  220. 
Leo  XIII,  519. 
"  Lesser  Occultation,"  126. 
Lewes,  G.  H.,  on  Islam  and  progress, 

152.  [^  l 
Liang  A-fah,  19-21. 
Liberators,    South     American,    tragic 

deaths  of,  197L 
Liberia,  283,  2S5. 
Li,  brother-in-law  of  Hung  Siu-tsuen, 

21. 
Li   Hung  Chang,  62 ;  on   Boxer  out- 
break, 591. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  664. 
Liquor  traffic  in  Africa,  260-265. 
Livingstone,   David,    23of. ;  and   slave 
trade,  252 ;    and   industrial    encour- 
agement, 257  ;  on  character  of  Boers, 
279. 


Livingstonia,  233,  237,  246,  253,  258, 
282. 

Livonia,  602. 

Loomis,  Henry,  on  advance  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Japan,  427. 

London  Daily  Graphic,  602. 

London  Missionary  Society  in  Mada- 
gascar, 247. 

London  limes,  on  saving  of  Uganda, 
246;  on  missionaries  in  China,  561 ; 
on  necessity  of  national  moral  re- 
generation, 677. 

"  Long-haired  rebels,"  24. 

Lovedale,  233,  237. 

Low,  Frederick  F.,  on  Protestant  mis- 
sions in  China,  589. 

Lozano,  197. 

Luapula,  231. 

Lupata,  230. 

Lyall,  Sir  Alfred,  on  the  British  Gov- 
ernment and  religion  in  India,  96f., 
99,  loif.,  103,  1 13L ,  116;  on  popu- 
lar Hinduism  and  morality,  329f.  ; 
on  religion  as  a  fusing  influence  be- 
tween races,  68 if. 

Macartney,  Lord,  672. 

Macauley,  speech  on  "  The  Gates  of 

Somnauth,"  99f.,  289. 
Mackay  of  Uganda,  on  mission  policy 

in  Africa,  2333".,  239. 
Mackinnon,  Sir  William,  246. 
Madagascar,  230,  241,  247f. 
Madhava  Rao,  Mr.  V.  P.,  C.  I.  E.,  on 

Christian  influence  in  India,  328f. 
Mahabarata,  29 1  f. 
Mahdi  Kuli  Mirza,  Prince,  129. 
Mahdi,  Shiah  doctrine  of  Imam,  125  ; 

movement  in  Africa,  270-278,  467. 
Mahmoud,  Sultan,  441. 
Maipo,  battle  of,  196. 
Makhzan  I  Masihi,  on  Bible  in  Gov- 
ernment schools,  in. 
Malleson,    "  The      Indian     Mutiny" 

quoted,  76,  89ft". 
Manchuria,  604,  613. 
Manes,  121. 
Manichreans,  141. 
Manila,  Archbishop  of,  on  the  wicked 

designs  of  America,  506ft". 
Manila  lottery,  498. 
Mansfield,  Lord  Chief  Justice,  on  slave 

trade,  251. 
Marco  Polo,  229,  558. 
Margary,  murder  of  Mr.,  553,  562. 


Index 


705 


Marshall,  American  representative  to 
China,  673. 

Martin,  W.  A.  P.,  22,  44^,64;  letter 
to  Caleb  Cushing,  37-42;  on  error 
of  suppressing  Tai-pings,  58 ;  on  re- 
lation of  religion  and  trade  to  Chinese 
riots,  552,  556. 

Martyn,  Henry,  in  Brazil,  215. 

Masters,  Streynsham,  76. 

Matsukata,  Count,  420. 

Maximilian,  200f. 

Mayejima,  Baron,  on  Japan's  need  of 
the  Christian  religion,  418. 

Mazandaran,  war  against  Babis  in,  129. 

Mazdak,  121. 

McCartee,  D.  B.,  visit  to  Nanking  and 
Tai-pings,  49f,  430. 

McCarty,  Colonel,  on  the  Russian 
Church's  alleged  hoard  of  gold,  62of. 

McKinley,  President,  510;  on  Amer- 
ica's missionary  duty,  593^. 

McLane,  American  representative  to 
China,  673. 

McLeod,  Sir  Donald,  on  dependence 
of  Government  upon  Christianity  in 
India,  115;  on  need  of  Christian 
rulers  and  representatives  in  Asia, 
689. 

Meadows,  on  the  Tai-pings,  14,  15,  16, 
18,  23ff.,  26ff.,  33f.,  461.,  48. 

Meinicke,  on  influence  of  missions  in 
New  Zealand,  685 ;  on  the  trans- 
forming power  of  missions,  692. 

Menelek  of  Abyssinia,  611. 

Merel,  Bishop,  551. 

Merritt,  General,  order  to  troops  in  the 
Philippines,  526L 

Merv,  603. 

Mesurado,  Cape,  283. 

Mexico,  early  Roman  Catholic  Mis- 
sions in,  i86ff. ;  independence  of, 
193,  ig8f. ;  struggle  with  Church, 
200. 

Michie,  Alexander,  on  Chinese  predis- 
position to  secret  societies,  16;  on 
missions  and  the  Tai-pings,  59f.,  64 ; 
quoted,  56if.,  572;  on  the  theory  of 
China's  decadence,  659. 

Miller,  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  William,  on 
the  revival  of  Hinduism,  334. 

Miranda,  197. 

Mirza  Ali  Mohammed,  the  Bab ;  birth 
and  boyhood,  I22f. ;  under  Sheikhie 
influence,  125^;  claims  to  be  the 
way  to  the  Imam  Mahdi,  I27f. ;  ex- 


tension of  claims,  13 if. ;  death  and 
character,  132,  159. 

Mirza  Kazim  Beg,  on  the  Bab's  death, 
132;  on  Babism  and  woman,  148, 
150;  on  religious  liberty  in  Babism, 
155;  on  the  Bab's  character,  159. 

Mirza  Moli  Ali,  133. 

Mirza  Yahya,  134. 

Missionary  duty  of  Government,  275. 

Missionaries  and  political  upheaval, 
684f. ;  in  Indian  Mutiny,  92-1 11, 
113;  in    Boxer   Uprising,   570-575, 

579-589- 
Missions  and  civilization,  6756".,  682f., 

685. 
Missions  and  diplomacy,  672,  674. 
Missions  and  politics,  659-692 ;  rela- 
tion in  India,  1  I5f. ;  in  Africa,  246f., 
275 ;    Roman    Catholics   in    Korea, 
3631. ;    in   Japan,   407^,   43of. ;    in 
Turkey,  471-477;  in  Korea,  389ff. ; 
in  China,  579-589. 
Missions  and  slavery,  252ff. 
Missions   and   the    World    Movement, 
659-692. 
Asia   not   incapable   of    progress, 
659^ ;  Mr.  Meredith  Townsend's 
view  of  the  inaccessibility  of  Asia 
to   Western    influence,   660-662; 
the   outgoing   of  the  West   upon 
Asia   inevitable,  662;  and   desir- 
able,  663  ;  and    obligatory,   663- 
667 ;    right   and   duty   of  interna- 
tional  intervention   to  police  the 
world,  665  ;  and  to  secure  religious 
toleration,  666f. ;  the  only  justifi- 
cation of  the  Western  propaganda 
moral,  667  ;  the  Western  secular 
movement     inevitably     religious, 
667f. ;  and  destructively  so,  669 ; 
the  rightful  and  necessary  place  of 
missions,  670-690 ;  needed  to  cor- 
rect    error     and    vagary,    67of.  ; 
needed  to  counteract  repulsiveness 
of    political   and   commercial    ag- 
gression, 67 if. ;  service  of  mission- 
aries  in  diplomacy,  672-674;  in 
maintaining    moral    standards   for 
Westerners,    674^ ;    missions    the 
most  conservative  force,  675-678  ; 
in   China,  6781. ;    in   India,  680 ; 
religion  the  only  bridge  over  the 
racial    chasm,    68 if. ;    missions   a 
help  to  trade,  682-684;  not  pro- 
ductive  of  war,    684f. ;    right    of 


706 


Index 


missions  to  a  place  in  the  world- 
movement,  685ff. ;  Christianity 
the  religion  of  civilized  nations, 
6876°.;  the  need  of  Christian  di- 
plomacy, 688,  689  ;  the  final  issue, 
690-692 ;  Mr.  Townsend's  de- 
spondent view,  69of. ;  the  answer 
of  history,  69 if. 
Missions   and  trade,    258^,   566-569, 

682-6S4. 
Missions  of  the  World,  279. 
Mitre,  General,  on  tragic  deaths  of  the 

South  American  liberators,  197^ 
Miura,  Viscount,  384. 
Moens,  85. 

Mohammed,  I45f.,  157. 
Mohammed  Ahmed,  the  Mahdi,  27  iff. 
Mohammed  Ali,  273. 
Mohammed  Taki,  Mollah,  128. 
Mohammedanism;    sects,    125;  antag- 
onism to  the  Bab,  143 ;  finality,  147  ; 
and  learning  in  the  Dark  Ages,  152; 
stagnation,    153,    157;    intolerance, 
155,    484;    in   Africa,    240,    266ff. ; 
and  African  slave  trade,  2516°.;  and 
liquor,    265,     269;     and     morality, 
266ff. ;  and  the  Mahdi  movement  in 
Africa,  270-278;  and  the  Armenian 
Massacres,  467^,  480;  in  the  Philip- 
pines, 529^ 
Moir,  account  of  slave  caravan,  253. 
Moldavia,  454. 
Molokani,  the,  6336°.,  637. 
Monier  Williams,  on   the  aim  of  the 
East  India   Company,  76;  on  Sak- 
tism,    291 ;    on    Ram    Mohun    Roy, 
294, 297f. ;  on  number  of  Samaj  es,  318. 
Monroe  Doctrine  and  Protestant  mis- 
sions in  South  America,  224f. 
Monson,  Sir  Edward,  interview   with 

Count  Goluchowski,  480. 
Montgomery,  Henry,  on  God's  hand  in 

the  Indian  Mutiny,  79. 
Montgomery,  Miss  Annie,  on  Babism 

and  Christianity,  163L 
Montufar,  Archbishop,  187. 
Montufar,  revolutionary  leader,  197. 
Moravians  in  South  America,  in  eigh- 
teenth century,  215. 
Morelos,  198. 
Moreno,  197. 

Morley,  John,  on  Gladstone,  Gordon 
and  Mahdi  movement,  2730".  ;  on 
Cyprus  Convention,  455^,  483 ;  on 
politics  and  moral  improvement,  677. 


Moro  slavery,  530. 

Mozoomdar,  303,  3i5ff. 

Mtesa,  of  Uganda,  238. 

Muirhead,  visit  to  Nanking  and  Tai- 
pings,  52-55. 

Mukerji,  Babu  Dakinaranjan,  on  mis- 
sionaries and  the  Indian  Mutiny, 
106. 

Midler,  Max,  on  Hindu  idolatry,  275 f. ; 
on  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  298. 

Murata  Tsutomu,  on  the  resemblance 
of  the  Meiji  Era  to  the  Renaissance, 

423- 

Muravieff,  608,  613. 

Murdoch,  John,  on  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen's  program,  304;  on  the  theism 
of  Western  India,  319;  on  the  sta- 
tistics of  the  Brahmo  Samaj,  327. 

Murphy,  U.  G.,  433. 

Mutang,  the,  372. 

Nag,  B.  A.,  on  Arya  Samaj,  33if. 

Nakashima,  427. 

Nam,  John,  364. 

Nana  Sahib,  73,  78,  85,  91,  104,  113, 

Nanagiero,  Andre,  on  Spanish  emi- 
gration in  sixteenth  century,  185. 

Nanak,  292. 

Nanking,  capture  by  Tai-pings,  32; 
recapture  by  Imperialists,  34. 

Napier,  Lord,  on  missions  in  India, 
68of. 

Napier,  Sir  Charles,  on  the  cause  of  the 
Indian  Mutiny,  106. 

Napoleon,  relation  to  South  American 
independence,  192,  198;  use  of 
Mahdi  expectation,  27 1 ;  and  India, 
608. 

Nash,  Professor,  on  Church  and  State, 

587f- 
Nasr-ed-Din,  128. 

Natal,  279. 

Native  races  question  in  South  Africa, 
28off. 

Neesima,  J.  H.,  429. 

Nejib  Pasha,  443. 

Nestorians,  massacre  of,  in  1850,  442  ; 
purpose  of  missions  to,  445  ;  Russian 
Church  mission  to,  643ff. 

Neutrality,  religious,  of  Government, 
in  India,  IOI-II2;  in  the  Philip- 
pines, 519-525;  limitations,  666f., 
687ff. 

Nevelsky,  Admiral,  613. 


Index 


707 


Nevius,  J.  L.,  on  Tai-pings,  21,  27, 
47ff. 

New  York  Evening  Post  on  Islam  and 
liquor,  265. 

New  York  Sun,  on  the  Congo  Free 
State,  2501". ;  on  Western  traders  in 
China,  569 ;  on  missionaries  in  China, 
570. 

New  York  Twies  on  the  question  of  in- 
ternational intervention,  666. 

Newton,  John,  678. 

Ngi,  Anthony,  363. 

Nicholas  I,  608,  61 2f.,  640. 

Nicolai,  Bishop,  and  his  mission  to 
Japan,  645-648. 

Niger,  the,  2411".,  257,  284. 

Nikon,  619,  633. 

Nile,  the,  230. 

Nirigpo,  Bishop  of,  on  the  sincerity  of 
official  opposition  to  Christianity  in 
China,  570. 

Nippon  Shimbun,  424. 

Nitobe,  Dr.,  on  Japanese  progress  as 
due  to  Bushido,  not  to  Christianity 
or  missionaries,  425  f. 

Niyog,  or  temporary  marriage  in  the 
Arya  Samaj,  325. 

Norman,  Henry,  on  the  suddenness  of 
Japan's  transition,  398 ;  on  Manila 
as  a  social  product  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  497 ;  on  customs 
surveillance  at  Manila  under  Spain, 
511 ;  on  Oriental  susceptibility  in 
matter  of  religion,  668. 

Novoye  Vremya,  on  Russian  advance- 
ment, 612;  on  Russian  exclusiveness 
in  North  China,  649  ;  on  persecution 
of  the  Armenians,  652. 

Nyassaland,  253,  257. 

Odoefski,  Prince,  on  Western  civi- 
lization, 598. 

O'Higgins,  197,  217. 

Ohrwalder,  Father,  on  the  Mahdi 
movement,  27  2f. 

Okuma,  Count,  on  Japan's  moral  need 
and  the  Bible,  418;  on  influence  of 
Confucianism  in  Japan,  420,  429 ;  on 
character   of    Europeans   in    Japan, 

43°- 
Olcott,  Colonel,  329. 
Oliphant,  on  Beha's  bribery,  145. 
Olney,  Richard,  on  America's  duty  to 

other  nations  and  the  Constitution, 

663f. 


Omar  Khayam,  142. 

Opinion  of  One  Hundred  Physicians 
on  the  Use  of  Opiutn,  564. 

Opium,  in  China,  cause  of  anti-foreign 
feeling,  562-565;  in  Japan,  529;  in 
the  Philippines,  528f. 

Opium  War,  the,  14,  43. 

Orange  Free  State,  278f. 

Oshima,  Major  General,  378. 

Othman  don  Fodio,  270. 

Otis,  General,  and  the  question  of  re- 
ligious neutrality  in  the  Philippines, 

Oudh,  annexation  of,  77 ;    Begum  of, 

85  ;  in  relation  to  the  mutiny,  89f. 
Outlook,      on      America's      duty       to 

other  nations  and  the  Constitution, 

663f. 
Owen,   J.,    on    Indian    Mutiny   as    a 

Mohammedan  conspiracy,  85. 
Oyama,  399. 

Pak  Chien  Sah,  371. 

Palacio,  General  Vicente  Riva,  186, 
188. 

Pansu,  the,  372. 

Parker,  Bishop,  on  influence  of  Govern- 
ment schools  in  India,  679. 

Parker,  Peter,  672. 

Parker,  Theodore,  and  Keshub  Chun- 
der  Sen,  304,  308. 

Paries,  Life  of  Sir  Harry,  4 1 5. 

Parliament  of  Religions,  290. 

Pasadas,  196. 

Paul  III,  Pope,  187  ;  bull  regarding 
rights  of  Indians,  189. 

Peddlers'  Guild  in  Korea,  386. 

Pentecost,  George  F.,  on  the  religious 
character  and  influence  of  Americans 
in  the  Philippines,  5 i8f.,  52if. 

Perkins,  Justin,  instructions  to,  as  mis- 
sionary to  the  Nestorians,  445. 

Perry,  Commodore,  13,  60,  396f. ;  on 
Liberia,  285. 

Persia,  see  Babism ;  prevalence  of  sects 
and  speculations,  121 ;  pantheism  in, 
131,  I4if.,  156,  159;  and  Russia, 
602,  641-645 ;  and  Great  Britain, 
64  if. 

Peru,  independence  of,  I96f. ;  laws 
against  freedom  of  worship  in,  202f. 

Peshawar,  Edwardes  on  missions  at, 
278. 

Peter  the  Great,  597^,  602,  608,  619, 
633- 


708 


Index 


Pettee,  J.  H.,  on  philanthropic  influence 
of  Christianity  in  Japan,  433. 

Phelps,  on  Babism  and  Behaism,  138, 
1401".,  145,  162,  164ft". 

Philippine  Commission  Report,  first, 
quoted,  505^,  509^,  527. 

Philippine  Commission  Report,  Taft, 
see  Taft  Philippine  Commission  Re- 
port. 

Philippines,  the,  condition  before  Span- 
ish-American War,  496-508 ;  po- 
litical conditions,  496f. ;  sway  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  its 
orders,  497f. ;  Manila  lottery,  498  ; 
limitations  upon  trade,  498f. ;  char- 
acter of  Government,  499f. ;  char- 
acter of  Church,  500ft. ;  ruled  by 
friars,  501-504;  ignorance,  504^ ; 
Roman  Catholic  Church  satisfied 
with  conditions,  505  f. ;  Archbishop's 
effort  to  rouse  fear  of  Americans, 
5o6ff. ;  no  religious  liberty,  511— 
514;  the  friars,  515-517;  America 
in,  517-533;  American  religious  in- 
fluence, 5 1  Sff. ;  religious  neutrality 
in,  519ft.;  America's  duty  to,  522- 
525  ;  economic  benefits  of  change  of 
ownership,  525^  ;  evil  side,  526f. ; 
Chinese  in,  527^ ;  opium  in,  528f. , 
Mohammedans  in,  529;  slavery  in, 
529f. ;  Protestant  missions  in,  53of ; 
hopeful  conditions  for  mission  work, 
532f. ;  effect  upon  the  United  States, 
533  ;  should  the  United  States  keep? 

536. 

Philipovtsi,  the,  634. 

Piar,  197. 

Pichincha,  battle  of,  197. 

Pius  IX,  letter  to,  from  Apostolic  Pre- 
fect in  Madagascar,  247f. 

Pizarro,  185^ 

Plassey,  73,  92. 

Plath,  on  nihilistic  influence  of  West- 
ern secular  civilization  in  Asia,  669. 

Playfair,  Sir  Lambert,  on  white  men  in 
Africa,  2S6. 

Plaza,  President  of  Ecuador,  letter 
to  Archbishop  of  Quito,  206ft'. 

Plehve,  652. 

Pobedonostseft,  652;  on  Russian  autoc- 
racy and  liberal  principles,  599- 
601 ;  on  the  Greek  Church  and  other 
Churches,  622-626 ;  attitude  towards 
dissent,  637. 

Poland,  602. 


Politics,  shame  of  international,  480, 

485- 
Pong-chu,  Thomas  Hong,  363. 

Port  Arthur,  604. 

Porto  Rico,  effect  of  Spanish-American 
war  upon,  494-496. 

Portugal  in  Africa,  2408".,  255^,  258. 

Poschkoff,  Colonel,  639. 

Potter,  J.  L.,  on  Babis  and  religious 
toleration,  155  ;  on  Babism  in  Amer- 
ica, 159L,  165  ;  on  Babi  allegorizing, 
162. 

Pottinger,  Sir  Henry,  672. 

Prarthana  Samaj,  319. 

Pratt,  H.  B.,  219. 

Prichard,  on  pacifying  influence  of 
missions  in  Polynesia,  685. 

Procurator  of  Holy  Synod,  620. 

"  Propagation  of  Catholicism  "  in  the 
Philippines,  505,  511. 

Protestantism  in  South  America,  214- 
225  ;  beginnings,  214;  Thomson  and 
the  Bible  Societies  and  the  Lan- 
casterian  Schools,  215ft.;  Allen 
Gardiner,  218;  other  missions,  219; 
objections  to  their  presence,  intru- 
sion, 2i9f.  ;  territory  already  occu' 
pied,  221 ;  character  of  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  22 iff. ;  Protestant- 
ism needed  to  purge  Romanism, 
223 ;  not  mere  proselytism,  224 ; 
need  of,  224. 

Punch,  poem  on  Livingstone,  252. 

Punjab,  British  officials'  support  of  mis- 
sions in,  278 ;  missionaries  in  the, 
and  their  influence,  678. 

Pun-tis,  19,  25. 

Purple  Sonnets,  484. 

Pyeng  Yang,  battle  of,  378,  388. 

Quarterly  Register,  The,  633. 
Quichua  Indians,  221. 
Quito,  Archbishop  of,  letter  from  Presi- 
dent Plaza  to,  2o6ff. 

Racial  Psychology,  66if. 

Rajanarayana  Bose,  and  the  Tantras, 
306. 

Ramiz  Bey,  and  the  troubles  at  Beirut, 
467. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy :  boyhood  and  edu- 
cation, 293f. ;  evils  he  faced,  294f. ; 
revolt,  295C ;  on  idolatry,  295 f. ;  re- 
forms advocated,  296;  caste,  296f.', 
relation    to   missionaries,    297f. ;    to 


Index 


709 


Christianity,  298;  organization  of 
Brahma  Sabha,  298f. ;  death,  299. 
Ramsay,  W.  M.,  on  Armenians  and 
Kurds,  446;  on  Turkish  Govern- 
ment, 450,  452;  on  Cyprus  Conven- 
tion, 457  ;  on  Sultan's  Orientalism, 
467 ;      on      missions      in     Turkey, 

47  3f- 
Ranavalona  I,  247. 

Ranavalona  III,  247. 

Rankin,  H.  V.,  on  the  attitude  of  Tai- 

pings  to  missions,  43. 
Rascol,   or    Russian    dissenting   sects, 

633-637- 
Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  on  Russia  and 

England  in  Central  Asia,  6o3f. 
Reed,  William  B.,  554^ ;  on  the  serv- 
ices of  missionaries  to  Government, 

673- 
Reflections    of  a    Russian    Statesman, 

599-601,  622-626. 

Reform  movement  in  China,  576,  578. 

Reinsch,  Professor,  534;  on  Russia's 
power  of  assimilation,  6i6f. ;  on 
duty  of  civilization  to  secure  invest- 
ments in  backward  lands,  665. 

Religious  liberty,  in  South  American 
Republics,  199,  20iff. ;  in  Mexico, 
2oof. ;  in  connection  with  the  Lan- 
casterian  schools,  2i5ff. ;  in  Babism, 
i54ff. 

Religious  Tract  Society,  the,  in  Rus- 
sia, 639. 

Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  627. 

Reynolds,  G.  C,  478f. 

Riggs,  Edward,  on  character  of  Ar- 
menians, 445f. 

Rights  of  missionaries,  political,  4761., 

.584-587. 

Rivadavia,  198. 

Rizal,  Dr.,  501. 

Roberts,  I.  J.,  and  Hung  Siu-tsuen,  23, 
24,  49f.,  52. 

Roberts,  Lord,  on  Indian  Mutiny,  79f., 
84f.,  91. 

Roca,  President,  of  the  Argentine,  203. 

Rodgers,  J.  B.,  517^ 

Roman  Catholics,  opposition  to  Tai- 
pings,  44,  64;  opposed  to  religious 
toleration.,  20 1 ;  opposition  to  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  Uganda,  238; 
and  African  slave  trade,  25 1 ;  in 
Korea,  363ff. ;  in  Japan,  397,  407; 
character  of  the  missions,  49 if. ;  dis- 
tinctive influence,  489,492;  in  Phil- 


ippines, 497f.,  500,  518;  in  China 
in  earlier  centuries,  558. 

Romero,  on  South  American  inde- 
pendence, 193. 

Rosebery,  Lord,  and  the  recall  of  the 
British  consuls  from  Armenia,  457  ; 
on  Russian  policy,  599. 

Ross,  John,  on  cause  of  anti-foreign 
feeling  in  China,  575-582;  on  mis- 
sionaries and  their  rights,  587 ;  on 
Russian  attitude  towards  Protestant 
missionaries  in  Manchuria,  647  f. 

Ross,  Professor,  estimate  of  the  Bab's 
character,  133,  146. 

Royal  Niger  Company,  256. 

Russell,  Earl,  letter  from  British  Min- 
ister in  China  to,  regarding  "  Chi- 
nese "  Gordon,  62. 

Russia  and  Korea,  384^ ;  agreements 
with  Japan  over  Korea,  384f. ;  and 
Turkey,  454ff.,  480,  612,  see  "  The 
Coming  of  the  Slav,"  597-649 ;  and 
Asia,  602,  604 ;  and  China,  6o4f., 
608 ;  and  England,  607  f.,  649 ;  and 
Germany,  608,  611;  and  France, 
611 ;  and  Persia,  641-645. 

Russian  people,  religious  character  of, 
627-637. 


Sadharan  Brahmo  Samaj,  310,  318. 

Saghagun,  on  the  destruction  of  the 
Aztec  temples  in  Mexico  by  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  missionaries,  186. 

Saigo,  398,  409. 

Saionji,  Marquis,  on  inadequacy  of 
Confucianism  to  the  needs  of  Japan, 
42of. 

Saktism,  291,  294. 

Salisbury,  Lord,  242,  247,  456,  464, 
469^,  480,  689 ;  on  missions  and  pol- 
itics, 686f. 

Salles,  Campos,  204. 

Salta,  197. 

Samarcand,  603. 

San  Martin,  189,  196,  198,  217. 

San  Stefano,  treaty  of,  455. 

Sarmiento,  President  of  Argentine,  and 
Protestant  schools,  220. 

Satow,  Sir  Ernest,  on  value  of  missions 
to  China,  674. 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  on  Christian 
nations  and  war,  684. 

Schouvaloff,  Count,  613. 

Schuyler,  Turkestan,  648. 


710 


Index 


Schweinfurth,    on     Islam    in    Africa, 

2691". 
Scio,  massacre  in,  441. 
Scott,  T.  J.,  on    Dyanand    Saraswati, 

336f- 
Seaton,  Sir  Thomas,  89. 
Secret  societies  in  China,  l6ff.,  59. 
Seeley,  J.  R.,  on  Christianity  as  a  uni- 
fying    political     force,     116,    681 ; 

quoted,  690. 
Segasta,  49 1 ;    on   Spanish   repressive 

rule  in  the  West  Indies,  496. 
Segu,  269. 

Sekigahara,  battle  of,  397. 
Selim  III,  668. 
Senusi,  252,  270. 
Seoul    Independent,   on    evil   political 

conditions  in  Korea,  308. 
Sepoys,  79 ;   their  disaffection  as  one 

cause  of  the  mutiny,  8of. ;  of  Oudh, 

9of. 
Serampore     missionaries     and     Ram 

Mohun  Roy,  297k 
Serata,  Admiral,  428. 
"  Seven  Martyrs  of  Teheran,  The,"  144, 

lS2- 
Seward,    William    H.,    664 ;    on    the 

United  States  Government's  disap- 
proval of  religious  intolerance  in 
Japan,  666f. 

Shah,  Babi  attempt  on  life  of,  130 ; 
Beha's  letter  to,  140. 

Shakounis,  the,  634. 

Shamanism  in  Korea,  3726°. 

Shameen  riot,  553. 

Shanghai  Mercury,  on  Western  im- 
morality in  China,  569. 

Sharp,  Granville,  256. 

Shedd,  J.  H.,  on  Babism,  128,  134, 138; 
on  relation  of  Babism  to  Christianity, 
180-182. 

Shedd,  W.  A.,  on  the  Christian  view 
of  international  politics,  663. 

Sheikhies,  the,  121,  123,  125^,  159. 

Sherman,  John,  on  political  rights  of 
missionaries,  476. 

Shiahism,  121,  125^,  128,  159,  162; 
attitude  to  Sufiism,  141. 

Shiel,  Lady,  on  "  The  Seven  Martyrs 
of  Teheran,"  152. 

Shimado  Soburo,  433. 

Shimonoseki,  treaty  of,  378. 

Shintoism,  effect  of  transformation  of 
Japan  upon,  403^,  421. 

Shiraz,  122,  125. 


Shukyo,  421. 

Siam  and  civilization,  661  ;  and  France, 
663. 

Siberia,  602,  607 ;  size  of,  6o4f.,  6o8f. 

Siberian  railway,  604. 

Sierra  Leone,  256^ 

Sikhs,  293. 

Simonton,  A.  G.,  219. 

Si-ngan  Fu,  558. 

Skoptsy,  the,  633^ 

Slav,  The  Coming  of  the,  597-655. 
The  mission  and  genius  of  Russia, 
587-599;  Pobedonostseff  on  autoc- 
racy and  liberal  institutions,  599- 
601 ;  the  facts  of  Russia's  develop- 
ment, 602-605  ;  the  spirit  of  Rus- 
sia's advance  in  Asia,  605-610; 
obstacles  to  further  Russian  ad- 
vance, 610ft. ;  Russia's  interna- 
tional relations,  61  if. ;  naturalness 
and  necessity  of  Russia's  expan- 
sion, 612-616;  does  Russia  as- 
similate Asiatics?  616-618;  char- 
acter of  Russia's  influence  in  Asia, 
6l9ff. ;  contrast  between  Russian 
and  Western  ideals,  6i8f. ;  the 
Greek  Church,  619-627  ;  develop- 
ment of  relations  of  Church  and 
State,  619;  the  Holy  Synod, 
6i9f. ;  the  procurator,  620 ;  char- 
acter and  influence  of  Church, 
621-627  ;  deep  religious  character 
of  Russian  people,  627-637  ;  the 
moujik,  627ft". ;  Russian  dissent, 
632-637  ;  attitude  of  Government 
towards  dissent,  637^  ;  attitude  of 
Russia  towards  Protestant  mis- 
sions, 638-653 ;  in  Russia  in 
Europe,  638^  ;  in  Turkey,  639ft. » 
in  Manchuria,  639,  647ft.  '■>  m 
Western  Asia,  640 ;  in  Persia, 
64 if.,  645  ;  Russian  Church  mis- 
sion to  Nestorians,  643-645  ;  to 
Japan,  635-638 ;  the  Czar's  proc- 
lamation of  religious  toleration, 
649 ;  oppressive  attitude  towards 
Armenians  and  the  Gregorian 
Church,  650—652 ;  ignorance  of 
Russia,  610,  653^ ;  industrial 
changes,  654  ;  and  consequences, 
655. 

Slavery  in  the  Philippines,  529f. 

Slave  trade  in  Africa,  history  of,  2516°. ; 
and  Mohammedanism,  252ft. 

Slavophile  movement,  598f.,  633. 


Index 


711 


Smeaton,  the  Hon.  Donald  M.,  on  the 
Bible  in  the  schools  of  India,  1  iof. 

Smith,  Arthur  H.,  on  necessity  of 
Christianity  to  the  social  improve- 
ment of  China,  679. 

Smith,  Bosworth,  on  Islam  in  Africa, 
267ff. 

Smith,  George,  on  the  attitude  of  the 
East  India  Company  towards  Chris- 
tianity, 76. 

Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  and  the  Sultan, 

458- 
"  Smith's  New  Map  of  Africa,"  230. 

Smyth,  George    B.,  on   the   Dowager 

Empress  and   the    Boxer   Uprising, 

53°- 
Sobat,  missions  on  the,  276f. 

Soen  Shaku,  on  the  need  of  the  trans- 
formation   of    Japanese    Buddhism, 

4°5- 
Sojigateli,  the,  634. 

Solano,  Governor  General  of  the  Phil- 
ippines, 500. 
Spain :  influence  of  emigration  in  six- 
teenth   century,    185  ;    attitude    to- 
wards early  colonies,  189;  character 
of  colonial  Government,  i89f.,  194; 
effects,   191;  in  Africa,   242,  255^; 
decay   of,  489^  ;    war  with  United 
States,    493ft".,    533;     character    of 
colonial  Government  in  Philippines, 
496ft". ,  499ff- 
Spaniard,  The  Going  of  the,  489-536. 
Decay  of  Spain  and  her  colonial 
Government,   489^  ;   character  of 
influence     of      Roman     Catholic 
Church,  489,  491ft.  ;  occasion  and 
causes   of    the    Spanish-American 
war,  493 ;    outcome  as  to  Cuba, 
4931". ;  as  to  Porto  Rico,  494-496 ; 
conditions    in    Philippines    before 
the   war,   496-508 ;   old    political 
conditions,    496f. ;    sway    of    the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  the 
orders,  497f. ;  lottery,  498  ;  limi- 
tations upon  trade,  498f. ;  bombast 
of  Spanish  authority,  499f. ;  con- 
dition of  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
500ft". ;  the  Church  friars  the  actual 
rulers,   501,   504 ;  consequent   ig- 
norance,   504^  ;   Roman    Catholic 
Church     satisfied,    505^ ;     Arch- 
bishop appeals  against  Americans, 
506ft.  ;    Philippine    demands    for 
religious  liberty,  511-514 ;  prob- 


lem of  the  friars,  515-517  ;  Amer- 
ican policy  as  to  religious  equality, 
517^,  5  i8f. ;  character  of  the  re- 
ligious influence  of  American 
rulers,  518ft.;  Governor  Taft  on 
neutrality,  5  igf. ;  limitations, 
52of.  ;  America's  duty,  522,  525  ; 
education  and  religion  in  the 
schools,  523-525  ;  economic  bene- 
fits of  the  change  of  ownership, 
525^  ;  the  evil  side,  526f.  ;  prob- 
lem of  the  Chinese,  521  f . ;  opium, 
528f. ;  Mohammedanism,  529; 
slavery,  529^  ;  Protestant  missions 
and  comity,  53of. ;  hopeful  condi- 
tion for  mission  work,  532f. ;  ef- 
fect upon  the  United  States  of  ac- 
quisition of  Philippines,  533 ; 
effect  upon  Spain,  533;  upon 
America's  relation  to  the  world, 
534f. ;  should  the  United  States 
keep  the  Philippines  ?  536. 

Spanish  conquest  of  America,  religious 
character  of,  l86f. 

Spencer,   Herbert,  and   Deva   Samaj, 

32°>  356- 
Speranski,  the,  608. 

Stanley,  on  Livingstone,  231  ;  chal- 
lenge from  Uganda,  238,  241. 

Staroveri,  the,  633. 

Statesman's  Year  Book,  633. 

Sterrett,  Professor,  on  the  character  of 
the  Kurds,  447. 

Stewart,  James,  233 ;  on  Boer  War 
and  missions,  279 ;  on  missions  and 
civilization  in  Africa,  675  ft". 

St.  Julian,  Sir  Charles,  on  missions  in 
Fiji,  683. 

St.  Petersburg  Viedomostt,  605. 

Stundists,  the,  632ft.,  635ft. 

Subh-i-Ezel,  134. 

Sucre,  I97f. 

Sudan,  the,  230,  233,  240,  242f.,  252 ; 
Mahdi  movement  in,  270-278  ;  mis- 
sions in,  276ft. 

Sufiism,  I4if.,  159,  303. 

Sultan  of  Turkey,  45  if.,  458,  462, 
465ft.,  475f.,  484. 

Sumner,  Charles,  664. 

Sunnis,  121,  125. 

Supar,  Dr.,  on  African  exploration,  230. 

Supreme  Court,  decision  of  United 
States,  as  to  Christianity  and  the 
State,  687f. 

Surprise,  The,  360. 


712 


Index 


Sutaieff,  63 iff. 
Suttee,  289f.,  294. 

Swedenborgianism,  resemblance  to 
Tai-ping  doctrine,  28. 

Taft  Philippine  Commission  Re- 
port, quoted,  501-504,  504^,  515— 

5r7- 
Taft,  W.  H.,  519^,  521 ;  on  America's 

duty  to  other  nations  and  the  Con- 
stitution, 663L 

Taguchi,  Mr.,  on  outrages  by  foreign 
troops  in  China  in  1900,  583^ 

Tai  Chang  Kun,  375. 

Tai-ping  Rebellion,  13-70:  importance, 
13 ;  causes,  14-19,  21  ;  and  secret 
societies,  16-19;  founder,  I9ff.'; 
Christian  element  at  the  beginning, 
21  j  Society  of  God  worshippers, 
22ft'. ;  conflict  with  Imperialists,  25  ; 
organization,  25ft". ;  religious  char- 
acter, 25-32,  47f.,  57  ;  military  suc- 
cesses, 32 ;  and  final  defeat,  34f. ; 
attitude  of  Western  nations,  37 ; 
opinion  of  Dr.  Martin,  37-42 ;  of 
Dr.  Legge,  66-70 ;  reasons  for  and 
against  suppression,  42-47(1".;  pos- 
sible religious  results  of  their  suc- 
cess, 47-57  ;  anti-Christian  feeling 
due  to  rebellion,  59f. ;  lessons  from 
rebellion,  60-65. 

Tai  Wan  Kun,  363,  379. 

Takia,  i62f. 

Talvoreeg,  461. 

Tanganyika,  230,  2536°.,  258. 

Tantras,  291,  306. 

Taoism,  relation  of  Tong  Haks  to,  362, 

543,  552- 

Taokwang,  555. 

Tarikh-I-Jadid,  1 23. 

Tartar  dynasty,  Chinese  hostility  to, 
33f.,  6of. 

Tashkend,  603. 

Tattwabadhini,  300. 

Taylor,  Canon  Isaac,  on  Islam  in 
Africa,  268. 

Taylor,  Mrs.  Howard,  on  relation  of 
China's  opium  trade  to  Indian  Mu- 
tiny, 81. 

Telegraphic  communication  with  India, 

539- 
Temple,  Sir  R.,  on  the  British  share  of 
China,  552  ;  on  influence  of  missions 
in  India,  67  if. ;  on  influence  of  Gov- 
ernment education  in  India,  679L 


Terrell,  A.  W.,  and  the  Sultan,  458, 
467. 

Thaddeus,  444. 

Theosophy,  329. 

Thibet  and  Russia,  6o2f. 

Thomson,  James,  and  Bible  circulation 
and  Lancasterian  schools  in  South 
America,  2156°. 

Thomson,  Joseph,  on  Livingstonia 
mission,  246;  on  liquor  traffic  in 
Africa,  26of. 

Thornton,  Henry,  257. 

Thorp,  William,  on  moral  responsi- 
bilities involved  in  Monroe  Doctrine, 
225. 

Tigranes  I,  444. 

Tioukalstchiki,  the,  634. 

Tipu,  Sultan  of  Mysore,  668. 

Tokugawa  Shoguns,  397,  401,  404. 

Tolstoi,  631. 

Tong  Hak  Insurrection  :  general  char- 
acter, 359  ;  origin,  3616°.  ;  relation 
to  Roman  Catholicism,  36 if. ;  nature 
and  rites,  362f. ;  spread,  363 ;  exe- 
cution of  founder  and  disappearance 
of  movement,  365  ;  revival,  365  ; 
political  conditions  assailed,  265 ff. ; 
attitude  to  foreigners,  366,  375^ ; 
address  to  the  country,  369^ ; 
method  of  propagation,  370 ;  mag- 
ical elements,  37off. ;  loyalty  at  out- 
set to  king,  376L ;  rapid  growth, 
377f. ;  suppression,  377ff. ;  conse- 
quences, 379ff. ;  upon  China,  38of. ; 
upon  Japan,  382 ;  upon  world,  382  ; 
upon  Korea,  383-386 ;  and  Chris- 
tianity and  missions,  387ft". ;  effect 
upon  Korea's  relation  to  China,  388f. 

Torres,  197. 

Townsend,  Meredith,  on  the  stagnation 
of  Asia,  659 ;  on  the  inaccessibility 
of  Asia  to  Western  influence,  660- 
662 ;  on  hatred  of  Asia  for  white 
men,  67 1  ;  on  the  futile  duty  of 
Christian  missions,  690f. 

Trade  of  the  United  States,  with  Cuba, 
494 ;  with  Porto  Rico,  495  ;  with 
Philippines,  526;   with  world,  533. 

Trade  with  Asia,  irritating  influence  of 
Western,  566-569. 

Transvaal,  278f. 

Trevelyan,  Sir  Charles,  on  character 
of  East  India  Company,  76f.,  87  ;  on 
native  army,  81  ;  on  native  attitude 
towards  British  rule,  82 ;  on  religion 


Index 


7l3 


and  mutiny,  94 ;  on  missions  and 
Government,  981".,  117;  on  immo- 
rality of  Hinduism,  114. 

Triad  Society,  16-18,  541. 

Tripoli,  270  ;  United  States  treaty  with 
in  1796,  687. 

Tseng  Kwo-fan,  541. 

Tsi-an,   Empress   of  China,   45,    544, 

55of->  559,  573- 

Tuan,  Prince,  549. 

Tuchef,  on  the  incomprehensibility  of 
Russia,  598. 

Tucker,  Bishop,  on  duty  of  Govern- 
ments not  to  compromise  mission- 
aries, 275. 

Tucuman,  197. 

Turk,  character  of  the,  448. 

Turkestan,  602. 

Turkey :  relations  to  Africa,  240 ; 
atrocity  of  her  rule,  44 if. ;  massa- 
cres, 441-443;  massacres  of  Ar- 
menians, 441-485 ;  character  of 
Government,  448(1". ;  the  Turkish 
problem,  453f.  ;  and  religious  toler- 
ation, 454 ;  and  England  and  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin,  455^ ;  responsi- 
bility for  Armenian  massacre,  464- 
470;  and  missionaries,  471-475. 


Uganda,  Church  Missionary  Society's 
work  at,  238f. ;  how  saved  to  Great 
Britain,  246 ;  Bishop  Tucker  on 
duty  of  British  Government  to  mis- 
sions in,  275. 

Ukhtomsky,  Prince,  on  Russia  and 
Thibet,  602 ;  on  Russia  in  Asia, 
605,  607,  609. 

Uncle  Fedia,  the  story  of,  627-631. 

Underwood,  Dr.,  of  Korea,  390. 

United  Service  Magazine,  condemning 
missionaries  as  cause  of  Indian  Mu- 
tiny, 113. 

United  States,  and  the  Armenian  Mas- 
sacres, 48 if. ;  a  Christian  nation, 
52off.,  687f. ;  and   the    Philippines, 

5f7-533;  trade  with  China,  539f. 
Unkiar-Skelessi,  treaty  of,  454. 
Unpopularity  of  orderly  government  in 

Asia,  85ff. 
Upanishads,  293,  296,  30 1,  3 1 8. 
Ural  Mountains,  the,  606. 
Urfa,  480. 
Uriu,  Admiral,  428. 
Usuri,  the,  604,  613. 


Vaishnava  Reformers,  292f.,  294. 

Valkhovsky,  on  the  mechanicalism  of 
the  Greek  Church,  62 if. 

Vambery,  on  Russia  in  Central  Asia, 
603. 

Van,  464. 

Veda  Samaj,  319. 

Vedantist,  302,  318,  329. 

Vedas,  the,  293,  295^,  298,  301,  317  ; 
and  the  Ayra  Samaj,  320ft".,  336ft. ; 
and  the  Brahma  Samaj,  330. 

Velasquez,  186. 

Venezuela,  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, 193,  195. 

Venn,  Henry,  258. 

Verbeck,  Guido,  406,  4o8f.,  412,  428- 

43°,  43 1- 
Verona,  Congress  of,  252. 

Veysen,  Matios,  187. 

Vienna,  Congress  of,  252,  602. 

Villavicencio,  197. 

Villegagnon,  214. 

Vishnu,  292f. 

Vivekananda,  Swami,  29of.,  332f. 

Vivian,  Lord,  remarks  at  Brussels  con- 
ference, 252. 

Vladimir,  Andreieff  Tsanoff,  on  Amer- 
ican schools  in  Turkey,  47  3f. 

Vladivostok,  604. 

Von  Biilow,  Chancellor,  on  Bishop 
Anzer's  demand  for  German  seizure 
of  Kiao-chou,  582. 

Von   Hammer,  on  the  assassins,   122, 

!33- 
Von  Korff,  Baron,  605. 

Wade,  Sir  Thomas,  on  the  persistence 
of  anti-foreign  feeling  in  China,  562; 
despatch  from  Earl  Granville,  585. 

Wady  Mirza  Jani,  122. 

Wahabiism,  270. 

Wainwright,  S.  H.,  on  ethical  necessi- 
ties created  by  Japan's  progress,  417. 

Wallace,  General  Lew,  and  the  Sultan, 

45  8,  467- 

Wallace,  Russia,  on  agricultural  neces- 
sity of  Russian  expansion,  6i4f. ;  on 
futility  of  buffer  states,  6o9f. ;  on 
Russia's  supposed  power  of  assimila- 
tion, 617  ;  on  Russian  view  of  re- 
ligious dissent,  637k 

Wallachia,  454. 

Wallays,  Father,  on  Roman  Catholic 
Missions  in  Korea,  363^ 

Walsh,  on  the  character  of  the  East 


7H 


Index 


India  Company,  73 ;  on  the  native 
view  of  the  religious  character  of  the 
British  Government  in  India,  gbi. 

Wandiwash,  73. 

Warneck,  685. 

Warsaw,  602. 

Washburn,  George,  473 ;  on  "  The 
Coming  of  the  Slav,"  597^  ;  on  re- 
ligious character  of  Russian  people, 
627ff. 

Watson,  William,  Purple  Sonnets,  484. 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  colonization  of 
American  Negro  in  Africa,  283,  664. 

West  Africa,  on  liquor  traffic,  264. 

Wherry,  E.  M.,  on  Reform  Movement 
in  Hinduism,  327L 

White,  Arnold,  on  the  American  State 
Department,  534f. 

White,  A.  S.,  on  obstructions  to  missions 
in  Africa,  260. 

Wilberforce,  on  Great  Britain's  re- 
ligious duty  to  India,  76 ;  and  Africa, 

257- 

Williams,  S.  Wells,  on  Tai-pings,  16, 
18,  2if.,  36f.,  46,  49;  service  to  the 
United  States  Government,  673^, 
554f. ;  on  opium,  564 ;  on  the  Arrow 
War,  565. 

Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  683. 

Wilson,  on  the  political  influence  of 
the  Church  in  Mexico,  200. 

Wilson,  Sir  C,  457. 

Wilson,  S.  G.,  on  failure  of  Babism, 
131  ;  woman  under  Babism,  150; 
Babism  and  a  future  life,  161. 

Wingate,  on  Ohrwalder's  testimony  re- 
garding the  Mahdi  movement,  273. 


Wood,  T.  B.,  on  the  transformation  of 
Ecuador,  205^ 

Woolsey,  Theodore,  on  right  of  one 
nation  to  interfere  in  affairs  of  an- 
other, 665  ;  on  the  state's  need  of  re- 
ligion, 670. 

Wright,  J.  N.,  on  Babis  and  religious 
toleration,  155. 

Wu-hu,  riot  at,  556. 

Wu-sueh,  riot  at,  553. 

Xenophon,  447. 

Yang  ban,  367. 

Yashts,  121. 

Yeh,  15. 

Yellow  River,  13,  578f. 

Yenikale,  602 

Yokoi,  407. 

Yorozu  Chohu,  on  Japan's  moral  be- 
wilderment, 437. 

Yoruba,  269. 

Younghusband,  F.  E.,  on  Roman  Cath- 
olic Missions,  49 if.;  on  Russia  in 
Persia,  642. 

Young,  Sir  W.  Mackworth,  on  influ- 
ence of  missionaries  in  India,  93f., 
678 ;  quoted,  107. 

Yu  Hsien,  Governor  of  Shan-tung, 
545.  548. 


Zambesi,  2306%  241,  258. 

Zanzibar,  Sultan   of,  letter   to    Mtesa, 

238;  and  slavery,  252f. 
Zumarraga,  Bishop,  187. 


lmt'°li nnthlTiK  Sem,nar»-Sp«r  bbrary 


1    1012  01102  1682 


Date  Due 


